And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.
Parallel translations
- WEB When he had begun to reconcile, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
- BSB As he began the settlements, a debtor was brought to him owing ten thousand talents.
- NKJV And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
- NASB And when he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him.
- NLT In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars.
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
One servant is brought who owes ten thousand talents, an impossibly vast sum. The staggering debt pictures the immeasurable debt of our sin before God.
Overview
Ten thousand talents was an astronomical amount, far beyond any servant's ability to repay. The deliberately enormous figure represents the crushing, unpayable debt we owe God because of sin. It sets up the contrast with the trivial sum owed by a fellow servant later in the parable.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ps 130:3–4If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
- Ps 38:4For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
- Luke 13:4Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
- Luke 16:5So he called every one of his lord’s debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord?
- Ezra 9:6And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.
- Ps 40:12For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
- Luke 16:7Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore.
- Luke 7:41–42There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.
- 1 Chr 29:7And gave for the service of the house of God of gold five thousand talents and ten thousand drams, and of silver ten thousand talents, and of brass eighteen thousand talents, and one hundred thousand talents of iron.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 18:24 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
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