If the home is worthy, let your peace rest on it; but if it is not, let your peace return to you.
Parallel translations
- WEB If the household is worthy, let your peace come on it, but if it isn’t worthy, let your peace return to you.
- KJV And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.
- ESV And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.
- NKJV If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.
- NASB If the house is worthy, see that your blessing of peace comes upon it. But if it is not worthy, take back your blessing of peace.
- NLT If it turns out to be a worthy home, let your blessing stand; if it is not, take back the blessing.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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
If a household welcomes the messengers, God's peace rests on it; if not, that peace returns to them. The response to the gospel determines the blessing received.
Overview
Jesus explains that the disciples' blessing of peace is effective where it is welcomed and withdrawn where it is rejected. The 'worthiness' in view is openness to the gospel, not moral merit. The verse underscores that receiving Christ's messengers means receiving the peace He alone secures by His work.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Luke 10:6If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you.
- Ps 35:13Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting, but my prayers returned unanswered.
- 2 Cor 2:16To the one, we are an odor of death and demise; to the other, a fragrance that brings life. And who is qualified for such a task?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
How Matthew 10:13 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.