And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
Parallel translations
- WEB If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
- BSB If a house is divided against itself, it cannot stand.
- NKJV And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
- NASB If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.
- NLT Similarly, a family splintered by feuding will fall apart.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A house divided against itself cannot stand. It matters because it reinforces that Satan could not be working against himself through Jesus.
Overview
Repeating the principle at the household level, Jesus drives home the impossibility of his critics' accusation. The image of a collapsing house underscores that division destroys. By contrast, Jesus' unified, Spirit-empowered ministry advances God's kingdom and dismantles the works of the evil one.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Jas 3:16For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
- Gal 5:15But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
- Ps 133:1Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
- Gen 37:4And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
- Gen 13:7–8And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Mark drives urgently to the cross, showing Jesus the Son of God as the suffering Servant who 'came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'
How Mark 3:25 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.