Add parallel Print Page Options

36 When[a] he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were bewildered and helpless,[b] like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38 Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest[c] to send out workers into his harvest-ready fields.”[d]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Matthew 9:36 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
  2. Matthew 9:36 tn Or perhaps “because they had been bewildered and helpless.” The grammatical issue is whether the perfect participles are to be regarded as predicate adjectives or as pluperfect periphrastic constructions (i.e., εἰμί in the indicative plus a perfect participle). Wallace regards these as pluperfect periphrastics, stating: “There may be a hint in Matthew’s use of the pluperfect, esp. in collocation with the shepherd-motif, that this situation would soon disappear” (ExSyn 584).
  3. Matthew 9:38 sn The phrase Lord of the harvest recognizes God’s sovereignty over the harvest process.
  4. Matthew 9:38 tn Grk “harvest,” but by extension of meaning this refers to the crops awaiting harvest in the fields. See BDAG 453 s.v. θερισμός 2.a.