Matthew 12:33-50

Common English Bible

Trees and fruits

³³ “Either consider the tree good and its fruit good, or consider the tree rotten and its fruit rotten. A tree is known by its fruit. ³⁴ Children of snakes! How can you speak good things while you are evil? What fills the heart comes out of the mouth. ³⁵ Good people bring out good things from their good treasure. But evil people bring out evil things from their evil treasure. ³⁶ I tell you that people will have to answer on Judgment Day for every useless word they speak. ³⁷ By your words you will be either judged innocent or condemned as guilty.”

Request for a sign

³⁸ At that time some of the legal experts and the Pharisees requested of Jesus, “Teacher, we would like to see a sign from you.”

³⁹ But he replied, “An evil and unfaithful generation searches for a sign, but it won’t receive any sign except Jonah’s sign. ⁴⁰ Just as Jonah was in the whale’s belly for three days and three nights,^[a] so the Human One^[b] will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. ⁴¹ The citizens of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it as guilty, because they changed their hearts and lives in response to Jonah’s preaching. And look, someone greater than Jonah is here. ⁴² The queen of the South will be raised up by God at the judgment with this generation and condemn it because she came from a distant land to hear Solomon’s wisdom. And look, someone greater than Solomon is here.

Unclean spirit seeking a home

⁴³ “When an unclean spirit leaves a person, it wanders through dry places looking for a place to rest. But it doesn’t find any. ⁴⁴ Then it says, ‘I’ll go back to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the place vacant, cleaned up, and decorated. ⁴⁵ Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself. They go in and make their home there. That person is worse off at the end than at the beginning. This is the way it will be also for this evil generation.”

Jesus’ family

⁴⁶ While Jesus was speaking to the crowds, his mother and brothers stood outside trying to speak with him. ⁴⁷ Someone said to him, “Look, your mother and brothers are outside wanting to speak with you.”

⁴⁸ Jesus replied, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” ⁴⁹ He stretched out his hand toward his disciples and said, “Look, here are my mother and my brothers. ⁵⁰ Whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven is my brother, sister, and mother.”