SIL Translator’s Notes on Matthew 22:9

22:9a

Go therefore: The Greek conjunction that the English Standard Version translates as therefore indicates a result. The first group of invited guests refused to come, so the king commanded his servants to Go to and invite other people.

Here is another way to translate this phrase:

So go (NET Bible)

to the main roads: The Greek phrase that the English Standard Version translates as main roads is more literally “outlets of the roads.” It probably refers to the places where the city roads went through the city wall and extended out into the countryside. These were probably main roads, but that wasn’t the focus of the phrase.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

where the roads leave the city (God’s Word)
-or-
to the places where the paths/trails exit the town

22:9b

and invite to the wedding feast: The verb invite and the phrase the wedding feast are the same words as in 22:3b. There, the English Standard Version translates these words as “call…to the wedding feast.”

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

Invite…to the wedding (God’s Word)
-or-
tell to come to the celebration

as many as you find: This phrase refers to everyone the servants found. The servants were not supposed to decide which people should come and which should not. They were supposed to invite everyone.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

whoever you find

-or-

everyone you see (New Living Translation (2004))

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Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

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