Matthew 18:7-14

18:7 Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! It ¹  is necessary that stumbling blocks come, but woe to the person through whom they come. 18:8 If ²  your hand or your foot causes you to sin, ³  cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have ⁴  two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 18:9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than to have ⁵  two eyes and be thrown into fiery hell. ⁶ 

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

18:10 “See that you do not disdain one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. 18:11 [[EMPTY]] ⁷  18:12 What do you think? If someone ⁸  owns a hundred ⁹  sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go look for the one that went astray? ¹⁰  18:13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, ¹¹  he will rejoice more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. 18:14 In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that one of these little ones be lost.

¹ tn Grk “For it.” Here γάρ (gar) has not been translated.

² tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

³ sn In Greek there is a wordplay that is difficult to reproduce in English here. The verb translated “causes…to sin” (σκανδαλίζω, skandalizw) comes from the same root as the word translated “stumbling blocks” (σκάνδαλον, skandalon) in the previous verse.

⁴ tn Grk “than having.”

³ tn Grk “than having.”

⁴ tn Grk “the Gehenna of fire.”

⁴ tc The most important mss (א B L* Θ* Ë^1,13 33 892* pc e ff¹ sy^s sa) do not include 18:11 “For the Son of Man came to save the lost.” The verse is included in D L^mg W Θ^c 078^vid Ï lat sy^c,p,h, but is almost certainly not original, being borrowed, as it were, from the parallel in Luke 19:10. The present translation follows NA²⁷ in omitting the verse number as well, a procedure also followed by a number of other modern translations.

⁵ tn Grk “a certain man.” The Greek word ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used here in a somewhat generic sense.

⁶ sn This individual with a hundred sheep is a shepherd of modest means, as flocks often had up to two hundred head of sheep.

⁷ sn Look for the one that went astray. The parable pictures God’s pursuit of the sinner. On the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, see John 10:1-18.

⁶ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”