So go to the main roads, and invite whomever you find there to the wedding feast.’
Parallel translations
- WEB Go therefore to the intersections of the highways, and as many as you may find, invite to the marriage feast.’
- KJV Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.
- BSB Go therefore to the crossroads and invite to the banquet as many as you can find.’
- NKJV Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’
- NLT Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.’
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
The king sends servants to invite anyone they find on the highways. This pictures the gospel going out widely, including to the outsiders.
Overview
With the original guests having refused, the king extends the invitation broadly to all who can be found. This anticipates the gospel reaching beyond the religious establishment to tax collectors, sinners, and ultimately the Gentiles. The scene magnifies the breadth of God's grace, which fills His feast with unlikely guests.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Luke 14:21–24“That servant came, and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor, maimed, blind, and lame.’
- Mark 16:15–16He said to them, “Go into all the world, and preach the Good News to the whole creation.
- Prov 1:20–23Wisdom calls aloud in the street. She utters her voice in the public squares.
- Prov 9:4–6“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” As for him who is void of understanding, she says to him,
- Ezek 21:21For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination. He shook the arrows back and forth. He consulted the teraphim. He looked in the liver.
- Luke 24:47and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
- Rev 22:17The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” He who hears, let him say, “Come!” He who is thirsty, let him come. He who desires, let him take the water of life freely.
- Eph 3:8To me, the very least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
- Prov 8:1–5Doesn’t wisdom cry out? Doesn’t understanding raise her voice?
- Isa 55:1–3“Hey! Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
- Acts 13:47For so has the Lord commanded us, saying, ‘I have set you as a light for the Gentiles, that you should bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth.’”
- Isa 55:6–7Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near.
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 22:9 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.