The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have Me.
Parallel translations
- WEB For you always have the poor with you; but you don’t always have me.
- KJV For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.
- NKJV For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always.
- NASB For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me.
- NLT You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.
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 the poor are always present but He will not always be. He affirms both ongoing care for the poor and the unique moment of His bodily presence.
Overview
Echoing Deuteronomy 15:11, Jesus acknowledges that opportunities to help the poor are continual. But His physical presence before His death and ascension is brief and unrepeatable. He is not dismissing the poor, but teaching that this singular hour calls for an extravagant act of worship that could not wait.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Deut 15:11For there will never cease to be poor in the land; that is why I am commanding you to open wide your hand to your brother and to the poor and needy in your land.
- Mark 14:7The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them whenever you want. But you will not always have Me.
- John 12:8The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have Me.”
- John 16:28I came from the Father and entered the world. In turn, I will leave the world and go to the Father.”
- John 13:33Little children, I am with you only a little while longer. You will look for Me, and as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you: ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’
- John 16:5Now, however, I am going to Him who sent Me; yet none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’
- John 14:19In a little while the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live.
- Matt 28:20and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
- Matt 25:42–45For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink,
- Matt 25:34–40Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
- John 17:11I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, protect them by Your name, the name You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one.
- Acts 3:21Heaven must take Him in until the time comes for the restoration of all things, which God announced long ago through His holy prophets.
- Matt 18:20For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them.”
- Gal 2:10They only asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
- 1 Jn 3:17If anyone with earthly possessions sees his brother in need, but withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God abide in him?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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 26:11 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.