Nehemiah shakes out the fold of his garment as a prophetic sign-act of rejection and curse against those who break faith. A possible cultural background for 'shake off the dust from your feet' (10:14) as a gesture of testimony against, though the dust-of-the-feet gesture is not identical.

Also I shook out my lap, and said, “So may God shake out every man from his house, and from his labor, that doesn’t perform this promise; even thus be he shaken out, and emptied.” All the assembly said, “Amen,” and praised Yahweh. The people did according to this promise.


'Be wise as serpents' (10:16) trades on the serpent of Eden being 'more subtle/cunning than any beast of the field.' Jesus redeems the proverbial shrewdness of the serpent for the disciples' survival among hostile men; the verbal link to the Genesis serpent's craftiness is the most natural source.

Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’”


Israel's predatory leaders are 'like wolves ravening the prey.' Combined with Zeph 3:3 this supplies the biblical 'wolves' menacing the flock, now the danger the sheep-disciples are sent into the midst of (10:16).

Her princes in its midst are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.


'Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves.' Reinforces the wolves-among-the-flock danger and specifically locates the threat in officials and judges — apt for 10:17-18, the councils, governors, and kings before whom disciples are dragged.

Her princes in the midst of her are roaring lions. Her judges are evening wolves. They leave nothing until the next day.


'What fellowship has the wolf with the lamb? No more has the sinner with the godly.' Second Temple wisdom uses the wolf/lamb pairing precisely for the irreconcilable hostility between the righteous and the wicked — close to the 'sheep among wolves' logic of the persecuted mission.

What fellowship shall the wolf have with the lamb? So is the sinner to the godly.


God's promise to the prophet sent to kings and nations — 'I have put my words in your mouth' — is the prophetic-call template behind 10:19-20: do not be anxious what to say, for it will be given you in that hour; it is the Spirit of your Father speaking in you. The handing-over of words to a divinely commissioned spokesman before hostile rulers is the same scene.

But Yahweh said to me, “Don’t say, ‘I am a child;’ for to whoever I shall send you, you shall go, and whatever I shall command you, you shall speak. Don’t be afraid because of them; for I am with you to deliver you,” says Yahweh. Then Yahweh stretched out his hand, and touched my mouth; and Yahweh said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.


'I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.' Moses' commissioning, where God overrides the inadequate speaker by supplying the very words, is the foundational background for 'it will be given you in that hour what you will say' and 'it is not you who speak' (10:19-20).

Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you shall speak.”


'The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, and his word was in my tongue.' David's last words present the same pattern of the Spirit speaking through a human mouth, a faint background for the Spirit of the Father speaking in the disciples (10:20).

“The Spirit of Yahweh spoke by me. His word was on my tongue.


'The son dishonoreth the father... a man's enemies are the men of his own house.' Micah's portrait of the collapse of household loyalty in a day of distress stands behind 10:21 ('brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents'). The same text is quoted more fully at 10:35-36; here it surfaces in the persecution context of intra-familial betrayal unto death.

For the son dishonors the father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.


'Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh... thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.' Daniel's eschatological endurance-to-the-end-and-be-vindicated theme underlies 10:22, 'he who endures to the end will be saved,' set amid tribulation.

Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred thirty-five days. But go you your way until the end; for you shall rest, and shall stand in your lot, at the end of the days.


'One like a son of man came with the clouds of heaven.' 10:23, 'until the Son of Man has come,' draws its title and its coming-in-judgment expectation from Daniel's vision; the apocalyptic horizon of the persecution sayings is Danielic.

I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.


'Beelzebul' (10:25) derives from Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron whom Ahaziah consults. The name of the rejected foreign deity becomes the slander hurled at 'the master of the house'; the disciples should expect the same naming, 'how much more those of his household.'

Ahaziah fell down through the lattice in his upper room that was in Samaria, and was sick. So he sent messengers, and said to them, “Go, inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover of this sickness.” But Yahweh’s angel said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and tell them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel, that you go to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron?


'Neither fear ye their fear... Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear.' Isaiah's command to fear God rather than the conspiracy of men is the precise logic of 10:28: do not fear those who kill the body, but fear him who can destroy soul and body. The double 'do not fear / rather fear' structure is Isaianic.

“Don’t say, ‘A conspiracy!’ concerning all about which this people say, ‘A conspiracy!’ neither fear their threats, nor be terrorized. Yahweh of Armies is who you must respect as holy. He is the one you must fear. He is the one you must dread.


'Gehenna' (10:28) is the valley of Hinnom (Topheth), the site of child-sacrifice that Jeremiah declares will become 'the valley of slaughter.' The OT condemnation of this valley as the place of fiery judgment supplies the term for the place where God can destroy both soul and body.

They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I didn’t command, nor did it come into my mind. Therefore behold, the days come”, says Yahweh, “that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter; for they shall bury in Topheth, until there is no place to bury.


Josiah defiles Topheth in the valley of the children of Hinnom so none could pass a child through fire to Molech. Reinforces the Gehenna background as the defiled valley of fire that becomes the figure of final destruction (10:28).

He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.


'There shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground.' The idiom of every hair guarded as a token of total providential protection (cf. 2 Sam 14:11; 1 Kgs 1:52) lies directly behind 10:30, 'the very hairs of your head are all numbered,' assuring the disciples of God's exhaustive care amid persecution.

The people said to Saul, “Shall Jonathan die, who has worked this great salvation in Israel? Far from it! As Yahweh lives, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he has worked with God this day!” So the people rescued Jonathan, that he didn’t die.


God keeps count of the sufferer's wanderings and bottles his tears. A thematic analogue to the divine bookkeeping of hairs and the fall of sparrows (10:29-31) — God's minute attention to the afflicted — though without verbal overlap.

You number my wanderings. You put my tears into your bottle. Aren’t they in your book?


'The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.' The wisdom maxim that proper fear is owed to God alone undergirds the redirection of fear in 10:28, but the connection is general rather than verbal.

The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.


'I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed.' A faint analogue to confessing Christ before men without shame (10:32), continuous with the 'testimony before governors and kings' of 10:18. Disputed and thematic only.

I will also speak of your statutes before kings, and will not be disappointed.


10:35-36 is a near-verbatim rendering of Micah 7:6: 'the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house.' Matthew reproduces the three paired antagonisms (father/son here as father, daughter/mother, daughter-in-law/mother-in-law) and the climactic 'a man's foes will be those of his own household' almost word for word. This is the strongest, formula-grade allusion in the chapter.


Levi 'said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren... for they have observed thy word.' The blessing praises placing covenant loyalty above family bonds — the same demand as 10:37, loving God above father, mother, son, daughter. A recognized OT precedent for cult loyalty overriding kinship.

He said of his father, and of his mother, ‘I have not seen him.’ He didn’t acknowledge his brothers, nor did he know his own children; for they have observed your word, and keep your covenant.


The Levites slay brother, companion, and neighbor at Moses' command and are thereby 'consecrated.' A harsh background for loyalty to God dividing even kin (10:34-37); thematically apt but lexically distant and contested.

He said to them, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Every man put his sword on his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and every man kill his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’” The sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. Moses said, “Consecrate yourselves today to Yahweh, yes, every man against his son, and against […]


The Aqedah — Abraham not withholding his son for the sake of God — is a possible figural backdrop to 'he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me' (10:37): supreme love of God above the dearest child. Suggestive typology rather than verbal echo.

After these things, God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” He said, “Here I am.” He said, “Now take your son, your only son, whom you love, even Isaac, and go into the land of Moriah. Offer him there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of.” Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. He split the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and […]


The widow of Zarephath receives the prophet Elijah and is rewarded with sustained meal and oil and her son's restoration. This is the paradigm narrative for 10:41, 'he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward' — hospitality to God's messenger drawing the messenger's blessing.

“Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you.” So he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks: and he called to her, and said, “Please get me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” As she was going to get it, he called to her, and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” She said, “As […]


The Shunammite woman receives Elisha, builds him a room, and is rewarded with a son and his resurrection. Together with the Zarephath account this supplies the OT pattern that receiving a prophet yields a prophet's reward (10:41).

It fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman; and she persuaded him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread. She said to her husband, “See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God, that passes by us continually. Please let us make a little room on the wall. Let us set for him there a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp stand. It shall be, when he comes to us, that he […]


The man who brings provisions to Elisha and 'the servant of the prophet' setting it before the people — a faint analogue to ministering to God's agents and not losing one's reward (10:42), within the same Elisha hospitality cycle.

A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. He said, “Give to the people, that they may eat.” His servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give the people, that they may eat; for thus says Yahweh, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’” So he set it before them, and they ate, and left some of it, according to […]


Giving the thirsty water to drink as a rewarded act of mercy is a wisdom analogue to 'a cup of cold water... he will in no way lose his reward' (10:42), though the proverb concerns an enemy. Thematic and disputed.

If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink: for you will heap coals of fire on his head, and Yahweh will reward you.


Jesus' catalog of signs answers John by weaving Isaiah's vision of the redeemed: 'the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped' — 'the blind receive sight, the deaf hear' borrows verbatim imagery, marking the dawning kingdom.

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.


'Then shall the lame man leap as a hart' directly underlies 'the lame walk'; Isaiah 35 is the controlling subtext for Jesus' reply, signaling that the eschatological restoration has arrived.

Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.


'to preach good news to the poor' (anointed Servant) supplies the climactic 'the poor have good news preached to them' — the same verb/theme Jesus claims as his own programmatic mission (cf. Luke 4:18).

The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is on me; because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to those who are bound;

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to preach glad tidings to the poor, to heal the broken in heart, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind;


'the dead are raised up' echoes Isaiah's resurrection hope, 'Your dead shall live... the earth shall give birth to the dead,' folded into the kingdom-signs list.

Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast out the departed spirits.


'In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see' — a parallel Isaianic oracle reinforcing the deaf/blind reversal, part of a recurring Isaianic cluster.

In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness.


The Servant 'to open the blind eyes' resonates with restoring sight; strengthens the Servant-mission reading of Jesus' self-presentation.

to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.


'Hear, you deaf; and look, you blind, that you may see' — further Isaianic deaf/blind language drawn into the answer to John.

“Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see.


'the lepers are cleansed' presumes the Torah cleansing rite for the healed leper; the only OT framework for leprosy cleansing, evoked figurally as fulfilled.

“This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest,


Naaman's cleansing is the paradigmatic prophetic leprosy healing; a faint precedent for 'lepers are cleansed' as a sign of prophetic power.

Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.


'Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you' is a formula citation ('of whom it is written') of Mal 3:1, 'Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me,' identifying John as the eschatological forerunner.

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, behold, he comes!” says Yahweh of Armies.


'Behold, I send a messenger before you' (LXX wording 'before your face') is conflated with Mal 3:1 in the citation; the second-person 'before your face' tracks Exodus more closely than Malachi's 'before me.'

“Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.


'this is Elijah, who is to come' directly invokes Mal 4:5, 'I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the LORD,' interpreting John as the returning Elijah.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.


The Elijah identification draws on the whole Elijah cycle; the wilderness/mantle prophet of austere dress stands behind the contrast with 'soft clothing' and the desert setting.

It was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave. Behold, a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”


Elijah 'a hairy man, with a leather belt' grounds the John-as-Elijah figure and the contrast with kingly 'soft clothing'; cf. Matthew's own description of John's garb.

They answered him, “He was a hairy man, and wearing a leather belt around his waist.” He said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”


'What did you go out into the wilderness to see?' evokes the wilderness-voice preparing the way, the same way-preparation motif as the Mal 3:1 citation.

The voice of one who calls out, “Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God.


'born of women' as a marker of mortal human descent is biblical idiom (cf. Job 14:1; 15:14; 25:4); the phrase frames John as the greatest of mortals.

I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”


'Man who is born of a woman is of few days' supplies the idiom 'born of women' for finite humanity, against which John's greatness and the kingdom's superiority are measured.

“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.


'wisdom is justified by her children' personifies Wisdom as in Proverbs 8, where Lady Wisdom calls and her children/sons heed her; Jesus and John are vindicated as Wisdom's offspring.

“Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, for blessed are those who keep my ways.


'Wisdom exalts her sons and lays hold of those who seek her' — Second Temple Wisdom personification standing directly behind 'wisdom is justified by her children.'

Wisdom exalts her sons, And takes hold of those who seek her.


'a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance' faintly underlies the children's complaint about piping/dancing and mourning/lament.

a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;


Wisdom's banquet invitation supports the wider Wisdom-vindicated theme; contested as a specific source.

Wisdom has built her house. She has carved out her seven pillars.


The oracle against Tyre (and Sidon, v.4) is the prophetic backdrop for naming Tyre/Sidon as proverbially judged Gentile cities now declared less culpable than the unrepentant Galilean towns.

The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. From the land of Kittim it is revealed to them.


Ezekiel's extended judgment on Tyre ('I am against you, O Tyre') makes Tyre the type of a doomed city; invoked to shame Chorazin and Bethsaida.

therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I am against you, Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up.


'Set your face against Sidon' — the companion oracle completing the Tyre/Sidon judgment pair Jesus names.

Son of man, set your face toward Sidon, and prophesy against it,


Sodom's fiery overthrow is the archetypal divine judgment; 'more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment' presupposes Genesis 19 as the benchmark of destroyed wickedness.

Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky.


'You, Capernaum, exalted to heaven, you will go down to Hades' reworks the taunt against Babylon's king: 'I will ascend into heaven... yet you shall be brought down to Sheol' (Isa 14:13-15).

You said in your heart, “I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north!


'brought down to Sheol' is the direct verbal pattern behind 'go down to Hades'; the proud-exaltation-then-abasement form is borrowed wholesale.

Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit.


Ezekiel compares Jerusalem unfavorably to Sodom ('Sodom your sister has not done as you'), the same rhetorical move — guilty Israel worse than proverbial Sodom — Jesus makes against Capernaum.

As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters.


'the punishment of my people is greater than the punishment of Sodom' parallels the comparative-judgment logic; contested as direct source.

For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, That was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were laid on her.


'repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes' echoes Nineveh's repentance in sackcloth and ashes, the model Gentile-repentance the Galilean towns failed to match.

The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.


Sodom and Gomorrah's overthrow as covenant-curse paradigm reinforces 'the land of Sodom' as judgment shorthand.

and that all of its land is sulfur, salt, and burning, that it is not sown, doesn’t produce, nor does any grass grow in it, like the overthrow of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath;


'I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth' echoes Daniel's blessing of the God who 'gives wisdom to the wise' yet reveals hidden things — the same revelation-to-the-lowly, concealment-from-the-wise pattern.

He changes the times and the seasons; he removes kings, and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to those who have understanding;


'I thank you... you have given me wisdom... made known to us the king's matter' supplies the thanksgiving-for-revelation form behind Jesus' prayer.

I thank you, and praise you, you God of my fathers, who have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we desired of you; for you have made known to us the king’s matter.


'the wisdom of their wise men shall perish' grounds the reversal in which God hides 'these things from the wise and understanding' — the same Isaianic critique of human wisdom.

therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden.”


Sirach 51 opens 'I will give thanks to you, O Lord and King' — a sage's thanksgiving immediately preceding the Wisdom-yoke invitation (Sir 51:23ff) that Matthew 11:28-30 reworks; the thanksgiving + invitation sequence parallels Matthew's.

I will give thanks to you, O Lord, O King, And will praise you, O God my Saviour: I do give thanks to your name:


'What is his name, and what is his son's name?' faintly anticipates the exclusive Father-Son mutual knowing of v.27; contested.

Who has ascended up into heaven, and descended? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has bound the waters in his garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son’s name, if you know?


The righteous one 'calls himself a child of the Lord' and claims knowledge of God, a Second Temple anticipation of the Son's unique knowledge of the Father.

He professes to have knowledge of God, And names himself servant of the Lord.


Wisdom's invitation 'Draw near to me, you who are untaught... Put your neck under the yoke, and let your souls receive instruction' is the closest analogue: 'Come to me... Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.' Jesus speaks as incarnate Wisdom issuing her summons.

Draw near to me, you unlearned, And lodge in the house of instruction.


'Put your neck under her yoke, and let your soul receive instruction... See with your eyes how I have labored little and found for myself much rest' — supplies yoke + labor + rest in the same cluster Jesus uses.

Put your neck under the yoke, And let your soul receive instruction: She is hard at hand to find.


'I have labored little and found for myself great rest' lies directly behind 'I will give you rest' / 'rest for your souls' joined to taking up the yoke.

Behold with your eyes, How that I laboured but a little, And found for myself much rest.


'ask for the old paths... and you will find rest for your souls' is verbatim behind 'you will find rest for your souls' (Mt 11:29); Jesus offers the rest Jeremiah's generation refused.

Thus says Yahweh, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, ‘Where is the good way?’ and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’


'Put your feet into her fetters, and your neck into her collar/yoke... at last you will find her rest' — Sirach's earlier Wisdom-yoke passage doubling the yoke-and-rest motif.

And bring your feet into her fetters, And your neck into her chain.


'at last you will find the rest she gives, and she will be changed into joy for you' reinforces the Wisdom-yoke-rest pattern adopted in vv.28-30.

For at the last you will find her rest; And she will be turned for you into gladness.


'My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest' is the foundational divine promise of rest; 'I will give you rest' assumes God as the giver of rest.

He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”


'gentle and lowly in heart' echoes the humble/meek king who comes 'lowly and riding on a donkey' (Mt 21:5 cites it); the same praus self-description.

Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you! He is righteous, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.


'the man Moses was very meek, above all men' offers a precedent for 'I am gentle (meek) and lowly,' figuring Jesus as a new Moses giving an easy yoke.

Now the man Moses was very humble, above all the men who were on the surface of the earth.


'his yoke shall depart... his burden depart from off their shoulder' — the relief-from-yoke/burden imagery faintly contrasts with Jesus' light yoke and easy burden.

that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and tread him under foot on my mountains. Then his yoke will leave them, and his burden leave their shoulders.


'Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters' is the open invitational form ('Come to me, all') of prophetic Wisdom-summons.

“Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.


David, hungry, enters the house of God and eats the bread of the Presence (showbread), unlawful for any but priests. Jesus cites this episode by name ('what David did') as the controlling precedent for need overriding cultic restriction. Strong verbal and narrative borrowing: David + companions + hunger + eating the consecrated bread.

Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no man with you?” David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has commanded me a business, and has said to me, ‘Let no man know anything of the business about which I send you, and what I have commanded you; and I have appointed the young men to such and such a place.’ Now therefore what is under your hand? Give me five loaves […]


The legislation behind the showbread: twelve loaves set before the LORD, to be eaten only by Aaron and his sons 'in a holy place.' Jesus' phrase 'not lawful... but only for the priests' depends directly on this statute, which makes David's act a transgression that incurs no condemnation.

“You shall take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes of it: two tenth parts of an ephah shall be in one cake. You shall set them in two rows, six on a row, on the pure gold table before Yahweh. You shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be to the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire to Yahweh. Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before Yahweh continually. It is on the behalf of the children of Israel an everlasting […]


The Sabbath burnt offerings (two lambs, with grain and drink offerings) — the legally mandated priestly labor on the Sabbath. This is the 'work' Jesus means when he says priests 'profane the Sabbath and are guiltless,' an a fortiori argument that the temple service licenses Sabbath labor.

“‘On the Sabbath day, two male lambs a year old without defect, and two tenth parts of an ephah of fine flour for a meal offering, mixed with oil, and its drink offering: this is the burnt offering of every Sabbath, besides the continual burnt offering, and its drink offering.


Formula-marked, near-verbatim citation: 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' Matthew uniquely inserts this Hosea line (cf. 9:13) as the hermeneutical key to the whole controversy; condemning the 'guiltless' violates God's own stated priority of mercy over cult.

For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.


The Decalogue Sabbath command is the implicit law under dispute ('not lawful to do on the Sabbath'); the entire pericope is a halakhic argument over its proper scope.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. You shall labor six days, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed […]


The second Decalogue's Sabbath command, grounding the rest in liberation; relevant background to the dispute over what the Sabbath is for and whom it serves.

“Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as Yahweh your God commanded you. You shall labor six days, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God, in which you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; that your male servant and your female servant may rest as […]


'In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest' — the specific Sabbath rule sometimes read to forbid reaping; the disciples' plucking of grain would be construed as reaping under this line. Contested as the precise statute the Pharisees invoke.

“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest: in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.


Plucking grain heads by hand from a neighbor's standing crop is explicitly permitted (gleaning by hand, not sickle); the disciples' act is lawful as such — the dispute is only the Sabbath, not theft. Explains why the Pharisees object to the day, not the deed.

When you come into your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the ears with your hand; but you shall not move a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.


'Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath' — the title carries the dominion granted to the Danielic 'one like a son of man,' here extended over the Sabbath itself. Contested whether the title here is titular-Danielic or generic 'man.'

I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.


The Sabbath's creational institution: God rests and hallows the seventh day. Jesus' lordship over the Sabbath claim resonates against the divine origin and purpose of the day.

On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work of creation which he had done.


Ahimelech the priest at Nob is the figure who gives David the bread; Matthew's general 'house of God' (not yet the Jerusalem temple) tracks the Nob sanctuary setting of the source.

Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no man with you?”


The withered/restored hand motif: Jeroboam's hand dries up and is restored at the man of God's word. Closest OT precedent for a 'withered hand' miraculously made whole, providing the verbal-thematic template Matthew's healing fulfills.

When the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam put out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him!” His hand, which he put out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back again to himself. The altar also was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by Yahweh’s word. The king answered the man of God, “Now entreat the favor […]


'You shall not see your brother's ox or sheep fallen by the way and hide yourself; you shall help him lift them up.' The rescue-of-fallen-animal obligation underlies Jesus' a fortiori: if you lift a sheep from a pit, how much more do good for a man.

You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way, and hide yourself from them. You shall surely help him to lift them up again.


Obligation to relieve even an enemy's overburdened or straying animal — Torah's positive duty of mercy to beasts, which Jesus leverages to argue that doing good cannot be a Sabbath violation.

“If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. If you see the donkey of him who hates you fallen down under his burden, don’t leave him, you shall surely help him with it.


Again the Sabbath command is the contested law; the healing is staged as a deliberate test case of what 'lawful to do on the Sabbath' includes.


The mercy-over-cult principle just cited (12:7) governs this scene too: 'it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath' enacts 'I desire mercy.' Thematic continuity links the two Sabbath controversies.


'How much more value is a man than a sheep' presupposes humanity's higher worth, rooted in creation in God's image; faint background to the lesser-to-greater argument.

God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.


Matthew's longest formula quotation, explicitly marked 'fulfilled... through Isaiah.' The Servant Song: 'Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul delights; I will put my Spirit on him; he will proclaim justice to the nations... a bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not quench... and in his name the nations will hope.' Matthew adapts the LXX/Hebrew to interpret Jesus' withdrawal, healing, and command to silence as the meek, non-clamorous Servant's mission.

“Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delights— I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout, nor raise his voice, nor cause it to be heard in the street. He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a dimly burning wick. He will faithfully bring justice. He will not fail nor be discouraged, until he has set justice in the earth, and the islands will wait for his law.”


'My chosen... in whom my soul delights, I will put my Spirit on him' verbally underlies the baptismal voice (Matt 3:17) and the Spirit endowment; Matthew here makes explicit the Servant-Christology already signaled at the baptism.

“Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delights— I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations.


The Spirit-resting-on the Davidic shoot who judges the poor with righteousness; coheres with 'I will put my Spirit on him... he will proclaim justice,' and with the crowd's 'son of David' question following in 12:23.

A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of Yahweh will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh.


Servant Song extending the servant's mission to the nations ('a light to the nations'); thematically reinforces 12:18/21 'justice to the nations... the nations will hope.'

Listen, islands, to me; and listen, you peoples, from far: Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name: and he has made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand, he has hidden me: and he has made me a polished shaft; in his quiver has he kept me close: and he said to me, “You are my servant; Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength […]


'My beloved' (agapetos) echoes the 'beloved son' Isaac language that LXX uses; faint resonance binding the Servant quotation to the beloved-son theme.

He said, “Now take your son, your only son, whom you love, even Isaac, and go into the land of Moriah. Offer him there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of.”


Beelzebul/Baal-zebub, 'the god of Ekron' whom Ahaziah consults; the demonic name the Pharisees use derives from this Philistine deity, recast as 'prince of the demons.' Source of the loaded name.

Ahaziah fell down through the lattice in his upper room that was in Samaria, and was sick. So he sent messengers, and said to them, “Go, inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover of this sickness.” But Yahweh’s angel said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and tell them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel, that you go to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron?


The crowd's 'Can this be the son of David?' invokes the Davidic-messianic hope of the dynastic promise; Matthew frames Jesus' exorcisms as evidence of Davidic/messianic identity.

When your days are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men; but my loving kindness shall not […]


'Shall the prey be taken from the mighty?... I will contend... and save your children.' The strong-man-bound-and-plundered image directly draws on Isaiah's promise that the spoil will be wrested from the tyrant — Jesus binding 'the strong man' (Satan) to plunder his house.

Shall the plunder be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captives be delivered? But thus says Yahweh, “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the plunder of the terrible shall be delivered; for I will contend with him who contends with you, and I will save your children.


'He shall divide the spoil with the strong' — the Servant despoiling the mighty resonates with 'plunder his goods'; coheres with the Servant frame just quoted in 12:18-21.

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.


'This is the finger of God' — Pharaoh's magicians concede the plagues' divine origin. Luke's parallel reads 'finger of God'; Matthew's 'Spirit of God cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come' carries the same Exodus echo: God's power directly at work signals the kingdom's arrival.

Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God:” and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he didn’t listen to them; as Yahweh had spoken.


Satan as the adversary rebuked by the LORD; background to the 'If Satan casts out Satan' / kingdom-of-Satan logic.

He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before Yahweh’s angel, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary. Yahweh said to Satan, “Yahweh rebuke you, Satan! Yes, Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn’t this a burning stick plucked out of the fire?”


The kingdom of God that breaks and supplants all other kingdoms; 'the Kingdom of God has come upon you' resonates with Daniel's eschatological kingdom overthrowing rival dominions (here Satan's).

In the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.


'He who is not with me is against me' carries the covenantal either/or of choosing allegiance ('choose this day whom you will serve'); faint thematic resonance of forced decision.

If it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.”


'They rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy.' Background to the unforgivable 'blasphemy against the Holy Spirit' — opposing the Spirit's manifest work (the exorcisms just performed) provokes irrevocable judgment.

But they rebelled, and grieved his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he himself fought against them.


The sin done 'with a high hand' that despises the LORD's word and finds no atonement ('that person shall be cut off'); OT precedent for a sin beyond forgiveness, coherent with blasphemy against the Spirit.

“‘But the soul who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native-born or a foreigner, the same blasphemes Yahweh. That soul shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised Yahweh’s word, and has broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off. His iniquity shall be on him.’”


'If a man sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him?' — a sin against God himself leaving no mediation; faint resonance with the unpardonable blasphemy.

If one man sin against another, God shall judge him; but if a man sin against Yahweh, who shall entreat for him?” Notwithstanding, they didn’t listen to the voice of their father, because Yahweh intended to kill them.


'The fruit discloses the cultivation of a tree; so a person's speech discloses the cultivation of his mind.' Striking parallel to 'the tree is known by its fruit' applied to speech ('out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks'). Second Temple wisdom on word-as-fruit.

The fruit of a tree declares the husbandry thereof; So is the utterance of the thought of the heart of a man.


'From the fruit of his mouth a man is satisfied with good' — wisdom linking words to fruit and to one's standing (justification/condemnation by speech), undergirding 'by your words you will be justified.'

A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth. The work of a man’s hands shall be rewarded to him.


'Death and life are in the power of the tongue' — words carry decisive judicial weight, coherent with 'by your words... justified... condemned.'

Death and life are in the power of the tongue; those who love it will eat its fruit.


'A gentle tongue is a tree of life' — wisdom's tree-and-speech imagery; faint background to the good/corrupt tree and its fruit of words.

A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but deceit in it crushes the spirit.


'God will bring every deed into judgment... whether good or evil' — background to 'every idle word... in the day of judgment,' extending judgment to speech.

For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.


'Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish' — Jesus quotes this near-verbatim ('three days and three nights in the belly of the whale') as the type of 'the Son of Man... three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.' Figural fulfillment of Jonah's burial-and-deliverance.

Yahweh prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.


Jonah's prayer 'out of the belly of Sheol' and deliverance on the third day is the typological pattern for Jesus' descent into 'the heart of the earth' and resurrection. The whole Jonah-in-the-deep scene is read as a sign of death and rising.

Then Jonah prayed to Yahweh, his God, out of the fish’s belly. He said, “I called because of my affliction to Yahweh. He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried. You heard my voice. For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas. The flood was all around me. All your waves and your billows passed over me. I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ The waters surrounded me, even to the […]


'The men of Nineveh... repented at the preaching of Jonah.' Jesus cites Nineveh's repentance as testimony against 'this generation' that refuses the greater preacher. Direct narrative borrowing from Jonah 3.

The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least. The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, […]


The queen of Sheba comes 'from the ends of the earth' to hear Solomon's wisdom. Jesus invokes 'the queen of the south' as a witness who sought wisdom, contrasting 'something greater than Solomon.' Verbal and narrative dependence on 1 Kings 10.

When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning Yahweh’s name, she came to prove him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bore spices, and very much gold, and precious stones; and when she had come to Solomon, she talked with him of all that was in her heart. Solomon told her all her questions: there was not anything hidden from the king which he didn’t tell her. When the queen of Sheba had […]


Parallel account of the queen of Sheba's visit to Solomon; reinforces the 'queen of the south' allusion, drawn from the Chronicler's as well as the Kings narrative.

When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to prove Solomon with hard questions at Jerusalem, with a very great train, and camels that bore spices, and gold in abundance, and precious stones: and when she had come to Solomon, she talked with him of all that was in her heart. Solomon told her all her questions; and there was not anything hidden from Solomon which he didn’t tell her. When the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of […]


'Out of the belly of Sheol I cried' — 'heart of the earth' language for the realm of death echoes Jonah's Sheol/deep imagery specifically.

He said, “I called because of my affliction to Yahweh. He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried. You heard my voice.


'On the third day he will raise us up' — the 'third day' resurrection schema possibly informs Jesus' 'three days' beyond the Jonah figure alone. Contested as a contributing intertext.

After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before him.


'A perverse and crooked generation' — the Song of Moses' indictment lies behind Matthew's recurrent 'evil and adulterous generation'; covenantal-prophetic language for a faithless people.

They have dealt corruptly with him. They are not his children, because of their defect. They are a perverse and crooked generation.


'A perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness' — reinforces the 'evil and adulterous generation' charge as a Mosaic Song echo.

He said, “I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end will be; for they are a very perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.


'Adulterous' for the unfaithful covenant people draws on the prophetic marriage metaphor (Israel as faithless spouse); grounds 'adulterous generation' in Hosea's idiom.

Contend with your mother! Contend, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her prostitution from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts; Lest I strip her naked, and make her bare as in the day that she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst. Indeed, on her children I will have no mercy; for they are children of unfaithfulness; For their mother has played […]


Israel's 'adultery' / divorce for unfaithfulness; further prophetic backdrop to 'adulterous generation.'

I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, didn’t fear; but she also went and played the prostitute. Because she took her prostitution lightly, the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with wood.


The breadth and fame of Solomon's wisdom that drew rulers from afar; background to why the queen came and why 'greater than Solomon' is a weighty claim.

God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and very great understanding, even as the sand that is on the seashore. Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all the nations all around. He spoke three thousand proverbs; and his songs were one thousand five. […]


Desert/waterless ruins as the haunt of demons and wild creatures ('goat-demons will dance there'); background to the unclean spirit roaming 'waterless places' as the abode of demons.

But wild animals of the desert will lie there, and their houses will be full of jackals. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will frolic there.


Lilith and desert demons resting in the desolate waste; reinforces 'waterless places, seeking rest' as the conventional demonic wilderness habitat in prophetic imagery.

The wild animals of the desert will meet with the wolves, and the wild goat will cry to his fellow. Yes, the night creature shall settle there, and shall find herself a place of rest.


Azazel/the scapegoat driven into the wilderness; the desert as the place to which uncleanness is dispatched, faint background to the spirit's wilderness wandering.

But the goat, on which the lot fell for the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before Yahweh, to make atonement for him, to send him away for the scapegoat into the wilderness.


The demon Asmodeus flees to 'the remotest parts of Egypt' / the desert and is bound; Second Temple narrative of a routed demon driven to desolate regions, parallel to the unclean spirit expelled to waterless places.

When the demon smelled that smell, it fled into the uppermost parts of Egypt, and the angel bound him.


'As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly' — wisdom proverb on relapse to a worse state, thematic kin to the spirit's return making 'the last state worse than the first.'

As a dog that returns to his vomit, so is a fool who repeats his folly.


Levi 'disowned his brothers and ignored his children' for covenant loyalty — kin-ties subordinated to obedience to God. Background to Jesus redefining family by doing 'the will of my Father' over natural kinship.

He said of his father, and of his mother, ‘I have not seen him.’ He didn’t acknowledge his brothers, nor did he know his own children; for they have observed your word, and keep your covenant.


The Levites side with Moses against their own kin at the golden calf, gaining a 'blessing' for putting covenant before family; faint resonance with kinship redefined by allegiance to God's will.

then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Whoever is on Yahweh’s side, come to me!” All the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. He said to them, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Every man put his sword on his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and every man kill his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’” The sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and […]


'I delight to do your will, O my God' — doing the Father's will as the mark of true belonging coheres with 'whoever does the will of my Father.'

I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart.”


'I will tell of your name to my brothers' — the messianic figure naming the faithful as kindred ('brothers'); faint background to Jesus' new-family declaration.

I will declare your name to my brothers. In the midst of the assembly, I will praise you.


The word/seed that goes out from God's mouth and does not return empty but accomplishes its purpose, yielding seed and bread; the sower-and-word matrix governs the parable, made explicit in the later interpretation (v.19, 'the word of the Kingdom').

For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn’t return there, but waters the earth, and makes it grow and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goes out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing I sent it to do.


'Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns' — the contrast of receptive ground vs. thorn-choked soil maps directly onto Jesus' soils; thorns that choke recur in v.7, 22.

For thus says Yahweh to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, “Break up your fallow ground, and don’t sow among thorns.


'Sow righteousness... break up your fallow ground' — agricultural sowing-and-reaping imagery for response to God's word; thematic rather than verbal.

Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to kindness. Break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek Yahweh, until he comes and rains righteousness on you.


Isaac sows and reaps a hundredfold (LXX 'hekatosteuousan') in the same year — the only clear OT 'hundredfold' agricultural blessing, possible backdrop for the good soil's hundredfold yield (v.8).

Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh blessed him.


Second Temple (4 Ezra): the farmer sows much seed but not all that is sown takes root or is saved — a near-contemporary Jewish sower parable of differential reception; cf. also 2 Esdras 9:31.

For as the husbandman sows much seed upon the ground, and plants many trees, and yet not all that is sown shall come up in due season, neither shall all that is planted take root: even so those who are sown in the world shall not all be saved.


The Song of the Vineyard: God plants/sows expecting fruit and is disappointed by a barren yield; thematic kinship with fruit-bearing soils but no verbal overlap.

Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in its midst, and also cut out a wine press therein. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my […]


Formal fulfillment quotation (v.14-15): 'hearing you will hear and not understand, seeing you will see and not perceive... this people's heart has grown callous.' Verbatim LXX citation explaining why parables both reveal and harden.

He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand; and you see indeed, but don’t perceive.’ Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.”


'The LORD has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, ears to hear' — the same eyes/ears/heart triad governing whether revelation is 'given' (v.11); the verb 'given/not given' echoes Deuteronomy's grant-of-perception language.

But Yahweh has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day.


'Foolish people without understanding, who have eyes but do not see, ears but do not hear' — close parallel to v.13's 'seeing they do not see, hearing they do not hear.'

‘Hear now this, foolish people, and without understanding; who have eyes, and don’t see; who have ears, and don’t hear:


'A rebellious house, who have eyes to see but do not see, ears to hear but do not hear' — the same idiom of perceptual organs that fail in the obstinate.

Son of man, you dwell in the midst of the rebellious house, who have eyes to see, and don’t see, who have ears to hear, and don’t hear; for they are a rebellious house.


'There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries (mysteria)' — the only OT source of the technical 'mysteries' disclosed to the elect, behind 'to know the mysteries of the Kingdom' (v.11).

but there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has made known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head on your bed, are these: as for you, O king, your thoughts came on your bed, what should happen hereafter; and he who reveals secrets has made known to you what shall happen.


'The wicked shall not understand, but the wise shall understand' — an eschatological have/have-not of understanding paralleling v.11-12.

Many shall purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined; but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but those who are wise shall understand.


'Give to a wise man and he will be wiser still' — the principle of v.12, 'to him who has, more will be given,' resembles wisdom's accumulative reward.

Instruct a wise man, and he will be still wiser. Teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.


'Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things' — the blessing on eyes that see (v.16) inverts the prayer for opened perception; thematic only.

Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things out of your law.


The interpretation names the seed 'the word of the Kingdom' (v.19), confirming the Isaiah 55 word-as-seed substrate that bears or fails to bear fruit.


Sowing among thorns reappears interpretively (v.22, thorns = cares and riches that choke the word), echoing Jeremiah's warning not to sow among thorns.


'Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth' — the cursed ground's thorns as the agents of unfruitfulness; faint thematic backdrop to thorns choking the word.

It will yield thorns and thistles to you; and you will eat the herb of the field.


'Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe' — harvest as the set time of eschatological judgment and separation, directly behind 'at the harvest time I will tell the reapers' (v.30).

Put in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.”


The coming day burns like an oven, consuming the wicked as stubble; the burning of bundled weeds (v.30) anticipates this fiery consumption of evildoers.

“For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.


God will utterly sweep away / gather and remove the wicked from the land; gathering-for-removal imagery parallels gathering the weeds first.

I will utterly sweep away everything off of the surface of the earth, says Yahweh. I will sweep away man and animal. I will sweep away the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea, and the heaps of rubble with the wicked. I will cut off man from the surface of the earth, says Yahweh.


'Those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same' — the enemy who sows evil seed and its harvest of judgment; proverbial sowing/reaping morality.

According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity, and sow trouble, reap the same.


The planted sprig becomes a noble cedar 'and birds of every kind will nest in it, in the shade of its branches' — the closest verbal source for 'the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches'; a Kingdom-tree sheltering the nations.

in the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it; and it shall produce boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all birds of every wing; in the shade of its branches shall they dwell.


Nebuchadnezzar's great tree under which the beasts find shade and 'the birds of the air dwelt in its branches' (cf. 4:21) — a world-empire tree image transposed to the Kingdom of Heaven.

The leaves of it were beautiful, and its fruit much, and in it was food for all: the animals of the field had shadow under it, and the birds of the sky lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.


Assyria as a towering cedar in whose boughs 'all the birds of the air made their nests' — reinforces the prophetic tree-of-empire-sheltering-birds motif.

All the birds of the sky made their nests in its boughs; and under its branches all the animals of the field gave birth to their young; and all great nations lived under its shadow.


'Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they sing among the branches' — birds nesting in branches as an image of creational shelter.

The birds of the sky nest by them. They sing among the branches.


Abraham tells Sarah to take 'three measures (seahs) of fine flour' and make cakes for the divine visitors — the specific 'three measures of meal' is a distinctive verbal echo, a generous/hospitality-scaled quantity now hiding the Kingdom's leaven.

Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly prepare three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes.”


Gideon prepares an ephah of flour (roughly three seahs) for the angelic visitor — another theophany-meal of this large measure.

Gideon went in, and prepared a young goat, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of meal. He put the meat in a basket and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out to him under the oak, and presented it.


Hannah brings an ephah of flour to the house of the LORD — large-measure meal in a sacred context; faint.

When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bulls, and one ephah of meal, and a bottle of wine, and brought him to Yahweh’s house in Shiloh. The child was young.


The leaven left to rise by the baker; one of the few OT uses of leavening as a process working through dough, here neutral-to-positive rather than the usual negative valence.

They are all adulterers. They are burning like an oven that the baker stops stirring, from the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened.


Formal fulfillment quotation: 'I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.' Asaph's didactic psalm of Israel's history is cited as prophecy of Jesus' parabolic teaching.

I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,


'I will incline my ear to a proverb (mashal); I will open my riddle (hidah) on the harp' — parallel 'open my mouth / utter hidden things' diction; wisdom disclosing concealed truth.

I will incline my ear to a proverb. I will open my riddle on the harp.


To understand 'a proverb (mashal) and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles' — the mashal/riddle pairing underlying parabolic, hidden speech.

to understand a proverb, and parables, the words and riddles of the wise.


'Hidden things you have not known' newly declared — disclosure of things hidden, faint backdrop to 'things hidden from the foundation of the world.'

You have heard it; see all this; and you, will you not declare it? “I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, which you have not known.


'Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars' — the direct source of 'the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father' (v.43).

Those who are wise shall shine as the brightness of the expanse; and those who turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.


The 'furnace of blazing fire' (kaminos tou pyros) into which the disobedient are cast — verbal source for casting the wicked 'into the furnace of fire' (v.42).

and whoever doesn’t fall down and worship shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.


LXX: God will remove the lawless and 'the stumbling-blocks (ta skandala) together with the wicked' — strikingly close to 'gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling (ta skandala) and those who do iniquity' (v.41).

I will sweep away man and animal. I will sweep away the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea, and the heaps of rubble with the wicked. I will cut off man from the surface of the earth, says Yahweh.


The day burning like a furnace that consumes the wicked as stubble — the fiery end-of-age judgment behind the burning of the weeds (v.40-42).

“For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.


The Son of Man receiving an everlasting kingdom — Jesus self-identifies as 'the Son of Man' who has a Kingdom from which his angels gather the wicked (v.37, 41); the Danielic Son-of-Man/kingdom matrix.

I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.


Harvest = judgment reaffirmed: 'the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels' (v.39) interprets the harvest motif drawn from Joel.

Put in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.”


Second Temple: 'In the time of their visitation the righteous will shine forth and run like sparks through the stubble' — a near-contemporary parallel to the righteous shining (v.43), pairing radiance with the burning of the wicked.

And in the time of their visitation they will shine forth, And as sparks among stubble they will run to and fro.


'Let those who love him be like the sun rising in its might' — solar radiance as the destiny of the faithful; faint verbal kinship with shining 'like the sun.'

“So let all your enemies perish, Yahweh, but let those who love him be as the sun when it rises in its strength.” Then the land had rest forty years.


Seek wisdom 'as silver and search for it as hidden treasures' — the joyful search-and-sell-all for hidden treasure mirrors wisdom literature's treasure-hunt for the supreme good.

If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures:


Second Temple: 'Hidden wisdom and unseen treasure — what use is either?' — wisdom imaged as concealed treasure, faint backdrop to the field's hidden treasure.

Wisdom that is hid, and treasure that is out of sight, What profit is in them both?


'I will give you the treasures of darkness and hoards in secret places' — God-given hidden treasure imagery; thematic only.

I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, Yahweh, who call you by your name, even the God of Israel.


'The price of wisdom is above pearls/jewels' — wisdom surpassing precious gems; the pearl of supreme value for which all is sold echoes wisdom's incomparable worth.

No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal. Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies.


Wisdom 'is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire compares with her' (cf. 8:11) — the surpassing-value formula behind the one pearl worth selling everything.

She is more precious than rubies. None of the things you can desire are to be compared to her.


Seeking wisdom as for hidden treasure; the merchant's diligent seeking (v.45) parallels the wisdom-seeker's quest.


Men caught like fish in a net and dragnet, drawn up and gathered — the dragnet (sagene) cast into the sea collecting people is anticipated by Habakkuk's image of catching humanity in a net.

and make men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping things, that have no ruler over them? He takes up all of them with the hook. He catches them in his net, and gathers them in his dragnet. Therefore he rejoices and is glad. Therefore he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his dragnet, because by them his life is luxurious, and his food is good. Will he therefore continually empty his net, and kill the nations without mercy?


Fishermen spread nets and catch 'fish of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea' in the river from the temple — close to the dragnet gathering 'fish of every kind' (v.47).

It shall happen, that every living creature which swarms, in every place where the rivers come, shall live; and there shall be a very great multitude of fish; for these waters have come there, and the waters of the sea shall be healed, and everything shall live wherever the river comes. It shall happen, that fishermen shall stand by it: from En Gedi even to En Eglaim shall be a place for the spreading of nets; their fish shall be after their kinds, as the […]


The fiery end-of-age judgment recurs: the wicked separated and cast 'into the furnace of fire' (v.50), reusing the Malachi furnace motif.


Eschatological separation of the righteous and the wicked at the end; angels separating the evil from the just (v.49) parallels the two-fate resurrection.

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.


'All choice fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for you, my beloved' — the distinctive 'new and old things' brought out of one's store closely matches the scribe's treasure of 'new and old.'

The mandrakes produce fragrance. At our doors are all kinds of precious fruits, new and old, which I have stored up for you, my beloved.


'You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new' — old and new produce drawn from the storehouse of blessing.

You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall move out the old because of the new.


'Stand at the crossroads and ask for the ancient paths' — the discipled scribe honoring the old alongside the new; faint thematic link of valuing inherited wisdom.

Thus says Yahweh, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, ‘Where is the good way?’ and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’


The men of Anathoth, Jeremiah's own town, seek his life and forbid him to prophesy (cf. 12:6, his own family deals treacherously) — the prophet rejected in his homeland and household, behind v.57.

Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying, You shall not prophesy in Yahweh’s name, that you not die by our hand;


'I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother's children' — rejection by one's own family, paralleling 'in his own house' (v.57) where brothers and sisters are named.

I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s children.


'Is Saul also among the prophets?' — neighbors' astonishment that a known local figure now prophesies, like the townsfolk's 'where did this man get this wisdom?' (v.54).

When all who knew him before saw that, behold, he prophesied with the prophets, then the people said one to another, “What is this that has come to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?” One of the same place answered, “Who is their father?” Therefore it became a proverb, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”


'Despised and rejected by men' — the Servant's rejection foreshadows the prophet dishonored among his own; thematic, no verbal overlap.

He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.


Amaziah orders Amos to flee and stop prophesying at the king's sanctuary — a prophet driven out by the local establishment; faint analogue to hometown rejection.

Amaziah also said to Amos, “You seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: but don’t prophesy again any more at Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house!”


Herodias driving the execution of the prophet John echoes Jezebel, who pursues the prophet Elijah's life after he confronts the royal house. Matthew has already cast John in Elijah's mantle (3:4; 11:14), so the wicked queen consort hounding the Elijah-prophet is a deliberate figural pairing: Herodias is the new Jezebel, Herod the weak Ahab.

Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I don’t make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time!”


Ahab is the king whom 'Jezebel his wife stirred up' to do evil; Herod likewise acts at the prompting of Herodias and her daughter ('being prompted by her mother'). The motif of a king led into killing by his wife reinforces the Ahab/Jezebel typology.

But there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.


The royal birthday banquet at which a king, pleased and bound by his word, grants a woman 'whatever she asks' closely mirrors the banquet-and-rash-promise scenario of the Persian court, where the setting of feasting, courtiers, and a king committed to honor his pledge generates the plot.

in the third year of his reign, he made a feast for all his princes and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces, being before him. He displayed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent majesty many days, even one hundred eighty days. When these days were fulfilled, the king made a seven day feast for all the people who were present in Shushan the palace, both great and small, in the […]


Herod's oath, 'to give her whatever she should ask,' verbally echoes Ahasuerus to Esther: 'What is your request? It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom' (cf. Esther 5:6; 7:2). The extravagant open-ended royal promise is the same narrative device, here turned to murder rather than deliverance.

Then the king asked her, “What would you like, queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you even to the half of the kingdom.”


John's charge, 'It is not lawful for you to have her,' rests directly on the Torah prohibition against uncovering the nakedness of one's brother's wife; Lev 20:21 specifies the explicit ban on taking a brother's wife. John's rebuke is a halakhic citation of this statute.

“‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife. It is your brother’s nakedness.


'If a man takes his brother's wife, it is impurity... they shall be childless.' This is the precise legal ground for John's 'It is not lawful for you to have her' against Herod's marriage to Herodias, his brother Philip's wife.

“‘If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is an impurity. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness. They shall be childless.


The killing of a righteous prophet/messenger who rebukes the ruling house belongs to the deuteronomistic pattern of the murdered prophet (cf. Jer 26:20-23), which Matthew thematizes elsewhere (23:29-37). John's death extends this pattern of Israel slaying its prophets.

The Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said to them, “Thus says God, ‘Why do you disobey the commandments of Yahweh, so that you can’t prosper? Because you have forsaken Yahweh, he has also forsaken you.’” They conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of Yahweh’s house.


Pharaoh's birthday feast, at which a beheading is decreed among the assembled officials, is the only other named royal birthday in Scripture and supplies a faint precedent for a birthday banquet that ends in an execution.

On the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he made a feast for all his servants, and he lifted up the head of the chief cup bearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. He restored the chief cup bearer to his position again, and he gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand; but he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them.


Elisha feeds a hundred men with twenty barley loaves and there is some left over, against the servant's objection that it is too little. Matthew's feeding shares the structure: a prophet, an inadequate supply of loaves, a disciple's protest, a command to give it to the people, all eating, and a surplus remaining. Jesus is the greater Elisha.

A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. He said, “Give to the people, that they may eat.” His servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give the people, that they may eat; for thus says Yahweh, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’” So he set it before them, and they ate, and left some of it, according to […]


The miraculous feeding of a multitude in a 'deserted place' (wilderness) where there is no bread evokes the manna narrative: God provides bread in the desert, all eat and are satisfied, and the gathering is measured. The new-Moses typology frames Jesus as the one who gives bread in the wilderness.

Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from the sky for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law, or not. It shall come to pass on the sixth day, that they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.” Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, “At evening, then you shall know that Yahweh has brought […]


Moses' despairing question, 'Where am I to get meat to give all this people?... Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them?' mirrors the disciples' helplessness before the hungry crowd. The motif of an overwhelmed leader confronting an impossible feeding in the wilderness is shared.

Where could I get meat to give to all this people? For they weep to me, saying, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. If you treat me this way, please kill me right now, if I have found favor in your sight; and don’t let me see my wretchedness.” Yahweh said to Moses, “Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people, and officers over […]


The shepherd who makes his flock lie down in green grass and spreads a table sounds through the detail that Jesus has the crowd 'sit down on the grass' and feeds them to the full. Matthew omits Mark's explicit 'sheep without a shepherd' yet retains the green-grass/feeding tableau of the LORD as shepherd.

Yahweh is my shepherd: I shall lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.


The crowd 'like sheep without a shepherd' (Moses' prayer for a successor to lead Israel out and in) underlies Jesus' compassion on the shepherdless multitude; Matthew states this compassion (cf. 9:36) and enacts the shepherd's provision here.

who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in; that the congregation of Yahweh not be as sheep which have no shepherd.”


God's promise to shepherd his scattered flock himself, feeding them in good pasture and seeking the lost and sick, resonates with Jesus healing the sick and feeding the crowd in the open country. The Davidic-shepherd hope of Ezekiel is being enacted.

I will feed them with good pasture; and on the mountains of the height of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie down in a good fold; and on fat pasture shall they feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will cause them to lie down, says the Lord Yahweh. I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which […]


'Can God spread a table in the wilderness?' Israel's doubting question is answered as God rains down bread and the people 'ate and were well filled.' Matthew's 'They all ate, and were filled' echoes this wilderness-banquet vindication of God's power to feed in the desert.

Yes, they spoke against God. They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?” Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel, because they didn’t believe in God, and didn’t trust in his salvation. Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors […]


'You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.' The theme of God satisfying the hungry crowd to the full coheres with Jesus blessing and distributing until all are filled.

The eyes of all wait for you. You give them their food in due season. You open your hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing.


'I will abundantly bless her provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread.' A faint thematic resonance with the abundant provision of bread to the multitude in Zion's hope.

I will abundantly bless her provision. I will satisfy her poor with bread.


Elisha's multiplication of the widow's oil, where a small supply expands to abundance with a surplus, is a sibling miracle to the loaf-multiplication and reinforces the Elisha-as-feeder/provider background.

Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared Yahweh. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves.” Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me: what do you have in the house?” She said, “Your handmaid has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil.” Then he said, “Go, borrow containers from of all your […]


Boaz feeds Ruth so that 'she ate and was satisfied, and had some left over' — the same pattern of eating to the full with a remainder. A faint verbal-thematic parallel to the satisfied crowd and twelve leftover baskets.

At meal time Boaz said to her, “Come here, and eat of the bread, and dip your morsel in the vinegar.” She sat beside the reapers, and they reached her parched grain, and she ate, and was satisfied, and left some of it.


Samuel 'blesses' before the people eat at the sacrificial meal; the gesture of a prophet looking up and blessing the food before distribution faintly echoes the prophetic table-blessing convention.

As soon as you have come into the city, you shall immediately find him, before he goes up to the high place to eat; for the people will not eat until he come, because he blesses the sacrifice. Afterwards those who are invited eat. Now therefore go up; for at this time you shall find him.”


'Who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea' (LXX: walks on the sea as on dry ground). Jesus walking on the sea enacts a divine prerogative ascribed to God alone in Job; the act itself is a theophanic self-disclosure.

He alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea.


'Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters, yet your footprints were unseen.' God's path through the sea (in the Exodus retelling) underlies Jesus' way across the waters; the psalm makes sea-treading a uniquely divine mode of salvation.

Your way was through the sea; your paths through the great waters. Your footsteps were not known.


Jesus' self-identification, 'It is I' (egō eimi), reprises the divine self-naming 'I AM' given to Moses at the bush. Combined with the sea-walking theophany and 'Don't be afraid,' the egō eimi reads as a claim to the divine name and presence.

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and he said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”


'Fear not... when you pass through the waters I will be with you'; and Isa 43:10-13, 25; 51:12 repeatedly pair the divine 'I am he' (egō eimi) with 'do not fear.' Jesus' 'It is I; don't be afraid' fuses the reassurance-formula and the divine self-identification of Deutero-Isaiah amid the waters.

But now thus says Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, and flame will not scorch you.


Those who go down to the sea, caught in a storm with waves mounting, cry to the LORD, who stills the storm to a whisper and brings them to harbor. Matthew's contrary wind, distressed boat, terror, cry, and the ceasing of the wind map onto this sea-rescue psalm where the LORD masters the deep.

Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business in great waters; These see Yahweh’s works, and his wonders in the deep. For he commands, and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up its waves. They mount up to the sky; they go down again to the depths. Their soul melts away because of trouble. They reel back and forth, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end. Then they cry to Yahweh in their trouble, and he brings them out of their […]


'Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck... I sink in deep mire.' Peter's sinking cry, 'Lord, save me!' echoes the psalmist's drowning plea, casting Peter's near-drowning in the language of the lament for rescue from the waters.

Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck! I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.


'He reached down from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters.' Jesus stretching out his hand to seize the sinking Peter enacts the divine rescue-from-the-waters gesture of this royal thanksgiving.

He sent from on high. He took me. He drew me out of many waters.


'Stretch out your hand from on high; rescue me and deliver me from the many waters.' A close verbal sibling to Ps 18:16 reinforcing the 'outstretched hand from the waters' rescue motif applied to Peter.

Stretch out your hand from above, rescue me, and deliver me out of great waters, out of the hands of foreigners;


'You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them.' The stilling of the contrary wind when Jesus enters the boat enacts the Creator's sovereignty over the sea's tumult ascribed to the LORD.

You rule the pride of the sea. When its waves rise up, you calm them.


'Have you... walked in the recesses of the deep?' God's challenge to Job implies that traversing the deep belongs to God alone; Jesus' walking on the sea answers the rhetorical question in his own person.

“Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?


'You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters.' The theophanic image of God treading the sea in the prophet's vision faintly underlies the sea-walking theophany.

You trampled the sea with your horses, churning mighty waters.


The Red Sea crossing — God making a way through the sea by night to deliver his people from fear — is the Exodus archetype standing behind the night-time mastery of the waters and the deliverance of the disciples; Ps 77 explicitly reads the sea-treading as Exodus.

Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Yahweh caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. The children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand, and on their left.


The disciples' confession 'You are truly the Son of God' has a faint resonance with the recognition that one 'like a son of the gods' walks unharmed amid a deadly element; the title here, however, is more securely rooted in Matthew's own Christology (3:17; 16:16).

He answered, Look, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are unharmed; and the aspect of the fourth is like a son of the gods.


The boat's confession 'You are truly the Son of God' draws on the royal-messianic sonship of the enthronement psalm, the same Scripture echoed at Jesus' baptism (3:17). The post-theophany worship names Jesus in Davidic-divine sonship terms.

I will tell of the decree. Yahweh said to me, “You are my son. Today I have become your father.


The Spirit/wind of God hovering over the face of the waters at creation provides a faint backdrop: the one who walks upon the deep and masters the wind exercises the Creator's authority over the primordial waters.

The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.


The sick beg to touch 'the fringe (kraspedon) of his garment' — the tassels commanded for the corners of Israelite garments. Jesus wears the Torah-prescribed tzitzit, and healing flows through them, marking him as a faithful Israelite whose very fringe mediates God's saving power.

“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them that they should make themselves fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put on the fringe of each border a cord of blue: and it shall be to you for a fringe, that you may look on it, and remember all the commandments of Yahweh, and do them; and that you not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to play the prostitute;


'The sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings (kanaph)' — the same Hebrew term used for garment corners/fringes. Touching the fringe of Jesus' garment for healing evokes the eschatological promise of healing in the 'wings,' identifying him with the dawning sun of righteousness.

But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out, and leap like calves of the stall.


Mere contact with Elisha's bones revives a corpse; healing by contact with the prophet (or his remains/garment) belongs to the Elisha cycle and faintly extends the Elisha typology of the chapter to the touch-healings at Gennesaret.

As they were burying a man, behold, they saw a band of raiders; and they threw the man into Elisha’s tomb. As soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.


'Ten men... shall take hold of the robe (kanaph) of a Jew, saying, Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.' The nations grasping the garment-corner of the one with whom God dwells faintly resonates with the crowds reaching for the fringe of Jesus' garment.

Thus says Yahweh of Armies: “In those days, ten men will take hold, out of all the languages of the nations, they will take hold of the skirt of him who is a Jew, saying, ‘We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”


Formula-cited ('Well did Isaiah prophesy of you'). Mt 15:8-9 reproduces Isaiah's indictment of lip-service worship ('this people draw near with their mouth... but their heart is far from me... in vain do they worship, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men'). Verbatim LXX-leaning quotation; the climactic charge of the pericope.

The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and with their lips to honor me, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught;

And the Lord has said, This people draw nigh to me with their mouth, and they honour me with their lips, but their heart is far from me: but in vain do they worship me, teaching the commandments and doctrines of men.


'Honor your father and your mother' cited verbatim as 'the commandment of God' (Mt 15:4), the fifth word of the Decalogue, set against the Corban evasion.

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.


Parallel Decalogue form of 'Honor your father and mother'; Jesus' citation may carry the Deuteronomic as well as Exodus wording. Same commandment, recurrence reinforces.

“Honor your father and your mother, as Yahweh your God commanded you; that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.


'He who speaks evil of (curses) father or mother, let him be put to death' cited verbatim (Mt 15:4b) as the sanction backing the fifth commandment.

“Anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.


Holiness-code parallel to Ex 21:17: 'Everyone who curses his father or mother shall surely be put to death.' Likely conflated in Jesus' citation; recurrence strengthens the death-penalty backing.

“‘For everyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death: he has cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.


'Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother' — the Shechem covenant curse echoing the same dishonor/honor logic Jesus invokes against the Corban tradition.

‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or his mother.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’


Law of vows: 'If a man vows a vow to the LORD... he shall not break his word.' Underlies the Corban ('a gift devoted to God') practice Jesus targets — a binding vow weaponized against the fifth commandment.

When a man vows a vow to Yahweh, or swears an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.


Legislation on things 'devoted' (qorban/herem) to the LORD; the technical 'gift devoted to God' (Mt 15:5) draws on this dedicatory vocabulary.

“‘If it is an animal, of which men offer an offering to Yahweh, all that any man gives of such to Yahweh becomes holy. He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he shall at all change animal for animal, then both it and that for which it is changed shall be holy. If it is any unclean animal, of which they do not offer as an offering to Yahweh, then he shall set the animal before the priest; and the priest shall […]


Vows to the LORD must be paid and not delayed — the legal background that made Corban vows seem inviolable, which Jesus exposes as a pretext.

When you vow a vow to Yahweh your God, you shall not be slack to pay it; for Yahweh your God will surely require it of you; and it would be sin in you. But if you refrain from making a vow, it shall be no sin in you. You shall observe and do that which has gone out of your lips. Whatever you have vowed to Yahweh your God as a freewill offering, which you have promised with your mouth, you must do.


'Whoever curses his father or mother, his lamp will be put out' — wisdom restatement of the dishonor sanction echoed in Mt 15:4.

Whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in blackness of darkness.


The generation that curses its father and does not bless its mother; thematic resonance with the dishonor Jesus condemns.

There is a generation that curses their father, and doesn’t bless their mother. There is a generation that is pure in their own eyes, yet are not washed from their filthiness. There is a generation, oh how lofty are their eyes! Their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and their jaws like knives, to devour the poor from the earth, and the needy from among men. “The leach has two daughters: ‘Give, give.’ “There are […]


'You are near in their mouth and far from their heart' — close conceptual parallel to Isaiah 29:13's mouth/heart contrast that Jesus quotes; reinforces the lip-vs-heart motif.

You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; they grow, yes, they produce fruit: you are near in their mouth, and far from their heart.