But he answered, “I wasn’t sent to anyone but the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Parallel translations
- KJV But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
- BSB He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
- NKJV But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
- NASB But He answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
- NLT Then Jesus said to the woman, “I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep—the people of Israel.”
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
Jesus says he was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. It matters because it shows the God-ordained priority of his earthly mission to Israel first.
Overview
Jesus states the focus of his earthly ministry: he came first to Israel, in fulfillment of God's covenant promises. This was not a denial of mercy to Gentiles but a statement of redemptive order—to the Jew first (cf. Romans 1:16). The statement also tests the woman's resolve. Her response will show that faith can lay hold of Christ even before the full opening of the gospel to the nations.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Matt 10:5–6Jesus sent these twelve out, and commanded them, saying, “Don’t go among the Gentiles, and don’t enter into any city of the Samaritans.
- Rom 15:8Now I say that Christ has been made a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given to the fathers,
- Jer 50:6–7My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place.
- Acts 13:46Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, and said, “It was necessary that God’s word should be spoken to you first. Since indeed you thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.
- Ezek 34:5–6They were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became food to all the animals of the field, and were scattered.
- Acts 3:25–26You are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘In your offspring will all the families of the earth be blessed.’
- Ezek 34:16I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but the fat and the strong I will destroy; I will feed them in justice.
- Ezek 34:23I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.
- Isa 53:6All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
- Luke 15:4–6“Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn’t leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until he found it?
- Matt 9:36But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 15:24 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.