This verse narrates another invitation sent out to invite guests to the wedding feast, but the guests who are now invited are not the ones who received the original invitation. Of the original guests the king says those invited were not worthy (see 10.10, 11, 13, 37, 38 for worthy in the sense used here). In the Lukan form of this parable, the servant goes out twice to invite new guests; he first is sent to the “streets and alleys of the town,” and since there is still room in the house, he is sent afterwards to the “country roads and lanes” (14.21-23). Although some scholars propose that verse 8 originally followed verse 5, this is not the form of the parable which Matthew transmits, and translation must reflect accurately the text as it exists.

The text has his servants, but for some readers that poses a problem, since in verse 6 the servants he sent out were killed. Therefore “his other servants” is sometimes necessary.

As in Good News Translation, The wedding may more naturally be translated as “The wedding feast,” using the same expression as in Matthew 22.2.

Those invited may have to be expressed as “those people I invited.”

Most translators will express were not worthy in a way similar to Good News Translation, possibly “did not deserve the invitations” or “did not deserve to be invited.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .