Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!(A) If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble,(B) cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble,(C) gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.(D)

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Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! It[a] is necessary that stumbling blocks come, but woe to the person through whom they come. If[b] your hand or your foot causes you to sin,[c] cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have[d] two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than to have[e] two eyes and be thrown into fiery hell.[f]

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Footnotes

  1. Matthew 18:7 tn Grk “For it.” Here γάρ (gar) has not been translated.
  2. Matthew 18:8 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
  3. Matthew 18:8 sn In Greek there is a wordplay that is difficult to reproduce in English here. The verb translated “causes…to sin” (σκανδαλίζω, skandalizō) comes from the same root as the word translated “stumbling blocks” (σκάνδαλον, skandalon) in the previous verse.
  4. Matthew 18:8 tn Grk “than having.”
  5. Matthew 18:9 tn Grk “than having.”
  6. Matthew 18:9 tn Grk “the Gehenna of fire.”sn See the note on the word hell in 5:22.

Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!

Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.

And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

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