Matthew 16:2
◄  Matthew 16:2  ►
New International Version (©2011)
He replied, "When evening comes, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,'

New Living Translation (©2007)
He replied, "You know the saying, 'Red sky at night means fair weather tomorrow;

English Standard Version (©2001)
He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
But He replied to them, "When it is evening, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.'

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
He answered them: "When evening comes you say, It will be good weather because the sky is red.'

International Standard Version (©2012)
He replied to them, "You say, 'Red sky at night, what a delight!

NET Bible (©2006)
He said, "When evening comes you say, 'It will be fair weather, because the sky is red,'

Aramaic Bible in Plain English (©2010)
But he answered and said to them, “Whenever it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red'.”

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
He responded to them, "In the evening you say that the weather will be fine because the sky is red.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.

American King James Version
He answered and said to them, When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.

American Standard Version
But he answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the heaven is red.

Douay-Rheims Bible
But he answered and said to them: When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.

Darby Bible Translation
But he answering said to them, When evening is come, ye say, Fine weather, for the sky is red;

English Revised Version
But he answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the heaven is red.

Webster's Bible Translation
He answered and said to them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.

Weymouth New Testament
He replied, "In the evening you say, 'It will be fine weather, for the sky is red;'

World English Bible
But he answered them, "When it is evening, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.'

Young's Literal Translation
and he answering said to them, 'Evening having come, ye say, Fair weather, for the heaven is red,

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

16:1-4 The Pharisees and Sadducees were opposed to each other in principles and in conduct; yet they joined against Christ. But they desired a sign of their own choosing: they despised those signs which relieved the necessity of the sick and sorrowful, and called for something else which would gratify the curiosity of the proud. It is great hypocrisy, when we slight the signs of God's ordaining, to seek for signs of our own devising.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - The paragraph consisting of this and ver. 3 is omitted by many good manuscripts, probably owing to its similarity to the passage in Matthew 12:38. These verses are most probably genuine; and they certainly could not have been foisted into the text from Luke 12:54-56. The circumstances are too different, and the variations too marked, to make such interpolation probable. When it is evening. The Pharisees had demanded a sign from heaven; Jesus points to the western glow in the sky, and taunts them with being ready enough to read the signs of the weather, but slow to interpret proofs of more important circumstances. He does not, in the case of these mixed cavillers, argue from Scripture, but from the natural world, and he points out that, had they eyes to see and a mind to discern, they might mark tokens in historical events, in the moral and spiritual world, which attested his Messiahship as clearly as any specially given sign from heaven. Ye say, It will be fair weather (εὐδία). Probably an exclamation, Ye say, Fair weather! Rabbinical schools made a point of teaching weather lore; prognostications on this subject were greatly in vogue, and the rains of the coming year were annually foretold. On such meteorological observations, we may refer to Virgil, 'Georg,' 1:425, etc.; and Pliny, 'Nat. Hist.,' 18:35 and 78.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He answered and said unto them,.... Knowing full well their views, and having wrought sufficient miracles to confirm his Messiahship, he thought fit to give them no other answer than this:

when it is evening, ye say, it will be fair weather, for the sky is red; when the sun is setting, it is a common thing for you to say, looking up to the heavens, and observing the face and colour of them, that it is like to be fair weather; no rain, that night, nor perhaps the next day, for the sky is red like fire, through the rays of the sun; which show the clouds to be very thin, and so will soon waste away, and consequently fine weather must follow.

Matthew 16:2 Parallel Commentaries

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Pharisees and Sadducees Seek a Sign
1The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven. 2He answered and said to them, When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. 3And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O you hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky; but can you not discern the signs of the times?

Luke 12:54 He said to the crowd: "When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, 'It's going to rain,' and it does.
Matthew 16:3 and in the morning, 'Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.