Matthew 9:35-38

Workers for the Harvest

9:35 Then Jesus went throughout all the towns ¹  and villages, teaching in their synagogues, ²  preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and sickness. ³  9:36 When ⁴  he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were bewildered and helpless, ⁵  like sheep without a shepherd. 9:37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 9:38 Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest ⁶  to send out ⁷  workers into his harvest.”

[9:35]  ¹ tn Or “cities.”

[9:35]  ² sn See the note on synagogues in 4:23.

[9:35]  ³ tn Grk “and every [kind of] sickness.” Here “every” was not repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[9:36]  ⁴ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[9:36]  ⁵ tn Or “because they had been bewildered and helpless.” The translational issue is whether the perfect participles are predicate (as in the text) or are pluperfect periphrastic (the alternate translation). If the latter, the implication would seem to be that the crowds had been in such a state until the Great Shepherd arrived.

[9:38]  ⁶ sn The phrase Lord of the harvest recognizes God’s sovereignty over the harvest process.

[9:38]  ⁷ tn Grk “to thrust out.”