Chapter

Matthew 13:41

ESV The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers,
NIV The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.
NASB The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness,
CSB The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom all who cause sin and those guilty of lawlessness.
NLT The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will remove from his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.
KJV The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
NKJV The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness,

What does Matthew 13:41 mean?

Jesus is describing something that will take place at the "end of the age" during a time of judgment on the earth. This is part of His explanation of a parable (Matthew 13:36). This end-times sorting is represented by the time of harvest, when the farmer's reapers will gather all the weeds that have grown up with the wheat to be bundled and burned (Matthew 13:24–30). Jesus has explained that the reapers in the parable represent His servants, the angels.

Now Jesus says directly that He, the Son of Man, will send these angels to gather out of His kingdom all "causes of sin and lawbreakers." The Hebrew phrase these words are taken from may have originally appeared in Zephaniah 1:3. The phrase is apparently difficult to translate. Whatever it means exactly, it is clear from Jesus' teaching that the angels will take out of the world—by then entirely transformed into the kingdom of Jesus—everything that belonged to Satan or causes evil to continue in the world. This would include people and, perhaps, other things.

The fate of these children of the evil one is revealed in the following verse.
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