Matthew 25
Revised Geneva Translation
25 “Then the Kingdom of Heaven shall be likened to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
2 “And five of them were wise, and five foolish.
3 “The foolish took their lamps but took no oil with them.
4 “But the wise took oil in their flasks with their lamps.
5 “Now, while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.
6 “And at midnight there was a cry made, ‘Behold, the bridegroom comes! Go out to meet him!’
7 “Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.
8 “And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil. For our lamps are out.’
9 “But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, for there will not be enough for us and you. Rather, go to the market and buy some for yourselves.
10 “And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came. And those who were ready went in with him to the wedding. And the gate was shut.
11 “Afterwards the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord! Lord! Open up for us!’
12 “But he answered, and said, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’
13 “Therefore, watch. For you know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of Man will come.
14 “For the Kingdom of Heaven is as a man who, going into a strange country, called his servants and handed over his goods to them.
15 “And to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, each according to his own ability. And immediately he left home.
16 “Then the one who had received the five talents, went and traded with them, and gained another five talents.
17 “Likewise also, the one who received two, gained another two.
18 “But the one who received the one, went and buried it in the earth, and hid his master’s money.
19 “But after a long season, the master of those servants came and settled with them.
20 “Then the one who had received five talents came, and brought another five talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents. Behold, I have gained another five more talents with them.’
21 “Then his master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in little. I will make you ruler over much. Enter into your master’s joy.’
22 “Also, the one who had received two talents came, and said, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents. Behold, I have gained another two talents more.’
23 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in little. I will make you ruler over much. Enter into your master’s joy.’
24 “Then the one who had received the one talent came, and said, ‘Master, I knew that you were a hard man, who reaps where you do not sow, and gathers where you do not scatter.
25 ‘Therefore, I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the earth. Behold, you have what is yours.’
26 “And his master answered, and said to him, ‘You evil and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I did not scatter.
27 “‘Therefore, you ought to have put my money in the bank. And then at my coming I would have received my own with interest.
28 “‘Therefore, take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents.
29 “‘For to everyone who has, it shall be given, and he shall have abundance. But from the one who has not, even that he has shall be taken away.
30 “‘Therefore, cast that unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
31 “And when the Son of Man comes in His Glory and all the holy angels with Him, then He shall sit upon the throne of His Glory,
32 “And all nations shall be gathered before Him, and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
33 “And He shall set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on the left.
34 “Then the King shall say to those on his right hand, ‘Come you blessed of My Father. Take the inheritance of the Kingdom, prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
35 “‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me food. I thirsted, and you gave Me drink. I was a stranger, and you took Me in to you.
36 “‘I was naked, and you clothed Me. I was sick, and you visited Me. I was in prison, and you came to Me.’
37 “Then the righteous shall answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You; or thirsty and give You drink?
38 “‘And when did we see You as a stranger and take You in to us; or naked and clothe You?
39 “‘Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’
40 “And the king shall answer, and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these, My brothers, you have done it to Me.’
41 “Then He shall say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me you cursed, into everlasting fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels.
42 “‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me no food. I thirsted, and you gave Me no drink.
43 “‘I was a stranger, and you did not take Me in to you. I was naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’
44 “Then they shall answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry; or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to You?’
45 “Then He shall answer them, and say, ‘Truly I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’
46 “And these shall go into everlasting pain, and the righteous into life eternal.”
Matthew 25
EasyEnglish Bible
Jesus tells a story about ten young women
25 Jesus said, ‘I will tell you another story to show what the kingdom of heaven is like. There were ten young women who were going to a marriage party. They took their lamps with them and they went to meet the man who was marrying a wife. 2 Five of these young women were silly. The other five young women were wise. 3 The silly women took their lamps with them, but they did not take any extra oil with them. 4 The five wise women took jars of oil with their lamps. 5 The man who was marrying a wife did not come for a long time. So all the young women became tired, and they went to sleep.
6 In the middle of the night, someone shouted out, “The man is coming! Come out to meet him!”
7 The ten young women woke up. Then they prepared their lamps to make them work well. 8 The five silly young women said to the other five young women, “Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are not giving much light.” 9 The wise women replied, “If we did that, then there would not be enough oil for all of us. You must go instead to the people who sell oil. You must buy some oil for yourselves.”
10 So these five women went to buy some oil. While they were away, the man arrived for the marriage party. The five wise women were ready. They went with him into the house for the party. Then the servants shut the door.
11 Later, the five silly women also came to the house. They said, “Sir, Sir, please open the door for us.” 12 But he replied, “I tell you, I do not know you.” ’
13 Then Jesus said to the people, ‘So you must watch carefully. You do not know on what day or at what time I will return.’[a]
Jesus tells a story about three servants
14 Jesus said, ‘The kingdom of heaven is also like a man who began a journey. Before the master went away, he told his servants to come to him. He said to them, “Take care of all my money and all my things for me.” 15 The master gave one servant 5,000 gold coins. He gave another servant 2,000 gold coins, and to another servant he gave 1,000 gold coins. The master gave to each servant what he would be able to use well.[b] Then he went away on his journey.
16 The servant who had received 5,000 gold coins went out immediately. He bought and sold things with the money. When he did this, he got 5,000 more gold coins. 17 The servant who had received 2,000 gold coins did the same thing. This servant got 2,000 more gold coins. 18 But the servant who had received only 1,000 gold coins did something different. He went outside and he dug a hole in the ground. He buried the money that his master had given him.
19 After a long time, the master came home.[c] He asked the servants to come to him. He wanted to know how much money they had now. 20 The servant who had received 5,000 gold coins came to his master. The servant said, “Master, you gave me 5,000 gold coins. Now I have an extra 5,000 gold coins.”
21 The master said to this servant, “You are a good servant and you have done really well. You were careful with a small amount of money. Now I will give you authority over many more things. I am really happy about this and I want you to be happy with me.”
22 The servant who had received 2,000 gold coins also came to his master. The servant said, “Master, you gave me 2,000 gold coins. Now I have an extra 2,000 gold coins.”
23 The master said to this servant, “You are a good servant and you have done really well. You were careful with a small amount of money. Now I will give you authority over many more things. I am really happy about this and I want you to be happy with me.”
24 The servant who had received 1,000 gold coins then came to his master. The servant said, “Master, I know what you are like. You tell people what they should do all the time. You take food from fields where you did not put any seed in the ground. You get fruit from trees that you did not plant. 25 So I was afraid of you. I went and I buried your gold coins in the ground. Look! Here they are. You can have your money back again.”
26 The master said to him, “You are a bad and lazy servant. You know what I am like, do you? I get food from fields where I did not put any seeds. I get fruit from trees that I did not plant. You knew all that. 27 So you should have put the money into a bank. Then, when I came home, I could have received my money back from the bank, with extra money.”
28 Then the master said to his other servants, “Take the 1,000 gold coins from this bad servant. Give them to the man who now has 10,000 coins. 29 Some people have received good things. They will all receive even more and have lots of good things. Some other people have nothing. Those people will lose even the little bit that they do have. 30 This servant cannot work for me any longer. Take him outside and throw him into a dark place. There, people will cry and they will bite their teeth together.” ’[d]
God judges everybody
31 Jesus said, ‘I, the Son of Man, will return one day. Then people will see that I am great and powerful. All God's angels will come with me. I will sit on my great seat as king. 32 People from all the countries in the world will come together in front of me. I will put them into two groups. I will do it in the same way that a shepherd puts his sheep and goats into two groups. 33 He puts the sheep on his right side and the goats on his left side.[e]
34 The king will say to those people who are on his right side, “Come here. My Father has been good to you. He has prepared a place for you in his kingdom. That kingdom has been ready for you since the time that God made the world. 35 I was hungry and you gave me some food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me some water to drink. I was visiting your town and you asked me to stay in your home. 36 I did not have enough clothes and you gave me some clothes to wear. I was ill and you took care of me. I was in prison and you came to visit me there.”
37 Then the people on the right side will say to the king, “Master, when did we see that you were hungry and give you some food? When did we see that you were thirsty and we gave you some water to drink? 38 When did we ask you to stay in our home because you were alone? When did we give you some clothes to wear? 39 When did we take care of you because you were ill? When did we come to visit you in prison?”
40 The king will answer them, “I tell you this: You did all these things to help other people. They were not important people, but they were my friends. When you helped them, then you also helped me.”
41 Then the king will say to those people who are at his left side, “Go away from me. God has decided to punish you. He has prepared a fire that will burn for ever. He has prepared it for Satan and his servants. You will also go into that fire. 42 I was hungry but you did not give me any food to eat. I was thirsty but you did not give me anything to drink. 43 I visited your town but you did not ask me to stay in your home. I did not have enough clothes but you did not give me anything to wear. I was ill but you did not take care of me. I was in prison but you did not come to visit me.”
44 Then these other people will say, “Master, when did we see you and you were hungry, or you were thirsty? When did we see you alone or without clothes? When did we see you and you were ill, or in prison? When did you need our help and we did not help you?”
45 Then the king will reply, “I tell you this: You did not help people who are my friends. They were not important people. But when you did not help them, you also did not help me.”
46 Then those people on the king's left side will go away to the place where God will punish them for ever. But the good people on the king's right side will live for ever with God.’
Footnotes
- 25:13 In this story Jesus is the man who will marry the woman. We must be ready for him when he comes.
- 25:15 It was a lot of money that the master gave to his servants. The money was not a gift. The master wanted the servants to use the money. He wanted them to buy and sell things. He wanted them to use the money to get more money.
- 25:19 In the story, Jesus tells the people that he is going away. And he tells them that he will return. Some people do not want Jesus to rule over them. They do not use what he has given them. One day, they will meet him. Jesus told them that he would punish them then.
- 25:30 In the story, Jesus was telling people that God gives us gifts. So we must be careful how we use them. One day, he will ask us how we used those gifts.
- 25:33 The shepherd is the person who takes care of the sheep and goats. In the day, sheep and goats eat grass in the fields together. At night, the shepherd puts the goats inside so that they are warm. But he leaves the sheep in the fields. Jesus is using the sheep and goats picture story to explain about the kingdom of God. The sheep are like those people who obey God. And the goats are like those people who do not obey him.
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