Bible Strands
Matthew 18:24
As he began the settlements, a debtor owing ten thousand talents was brought to him.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The king in Jesus’s parable initiates account settlements with his servants, and a specific debtor is brought before him.
The words — The text highlights ὀφειλέτης (opheiletēs) as "a debtor" and προσηνέχθη (prosēnechthē) as "was brought to," noting the man is presented to the master.
The thread — The theme of unpayable liability runs to Psalms 38:4, which states iniquities have overwhelmed the speaker, and Psalms 130:3, which notes that if God kept account of iniquities, no one could stand.
Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to acknowledge the impossibility of settling an insurmountable debt through human means.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.
Cross-references
- Psalms 38:4 For my iniquities have overwhelmed me; they are a burden too heavy to bear.
- Psalms 130:3 If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?
- Ezra 9:6 and said: “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, because our iniquities are higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached the heavens.
- Psalms 40:12 For evils without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, so that I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed within me.
- Luke 13:4 Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam collapsed on them: Do you think that they were more sinful than all the others living in Jerusalem?
- Luke 16:5 And he called in each one of his master’s debtors. ‘How much do you owe my master?’ he asked the first.
- 1 Chronicles 29:7 Toward the service of God’s house they gave 5,000 talents and 10,000 darics of gold, 10,000 talents of silver, 18,000 talents of bronze, and 100,000 talents of iron.
- Luke 7:41 “Two men were debtors to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.
- Luke 16:7 Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ ‘A hundred measures of wheat,’ he replied. ‘Take your bill and write eighty,’ he told him.