For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.
Parallel translations
- WEB For you always have the poor with you; but you don’t always have me.
- BSB The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have Me.
- 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 the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.
- Mark 14:7For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.
- John 12:8For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.
- John 16:28I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.
- John 13:33Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you.
- John 16:5But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou?
- John 14:19Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
- Matt 28:20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
- Matt 25:42–45For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
- Matt 25:34–40Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
- John 17:11And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
- Acts 3:21Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
- Matt 18:20For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
- Gal 2:10Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.
- 1 Jn 3:17But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
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 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
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