Matthew 7:11
New International Version
If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

New Living Translation
So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.

English Standard Version
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Berean Standard Bible
So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

Berean Literal Bible
Therefore, if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in the heavens give good things to those asking Him!

King James Bible
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

New King James Version
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

New American Standard Bible
So if you, despite being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

NASB 1995
“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

NASB 1977
“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

Legacy Standard Bible
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

Amplified Bible
If you then, evil (sinful by nature) as you are, know how to give good and advantageous gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven [perfect as He is] give what is good and advantageous to those who keep on asking Him.

Christian Standard Bible
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

American Standard Version
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
If therefore you who are evil know to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in Heaven give good things to those who ask him?

Contemporary English Version
As bad as you are, you still know how to give good gifts to your children. But your heavenly Father is even more ready to give good things to people who ask.

Douay-Rheims Bible
If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more will your Father who is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him?

English Revised Version
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Even though you're evil, you know how to give good gifts to your children. So how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him?

Good News Translation
As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

International Standard Version
So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who keep on asking him!

Literal Standard Version
If, therefore, you being evil, have known to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who [is] in the heavens give good things to those asking Him?

Majority Standard Bible
So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

New American Bible
If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.

NET Bible
If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

New Revised Standard Version
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

New Heart English Bible
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him.

Webster's Bible Translation
If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Weymouth New Testament
If you then, imperfect as you are, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

World English Bible
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Young's Literal Translation
if, therefore, ye being evil, have known good gifts to give to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in the heavens give good things to those asking him?

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Ask, Seek, Knock
10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! 12In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets.…

Cross References
Psalm 84:11
For the LORD God is a sun and a shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.

Isaiah 63:7
I will make known the LORD's loving devotion and His praiseworthy acts, because of all that the LORD has done for us--the many good things for the house of Israel according to His great compassion and loving devotion.

Matthew 7:10
Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?

Matthew 23:9
And do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.

Luke 11:13
So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"

Romans 8:32
He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?

James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.


Treasury of Scripture

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

being.

Genesis 6:5
And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Genesis 8:21
And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

Job 15:16
How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?

how.

Exodus 34:6,7
And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, …

2 Samuel 7:19
And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord GOD; but thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O Lord GOD?

Psalm 86:5,15
For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee…

good.

Psalm 84:11
For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

Psalm 85:12
Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase.

Jeremiah 33:14
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.

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Able Children Evil Gifts Good Heaven Heavens Imperfect Rather Requests
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Able Children Evil Gifts Good Heaven Heavens Imperfect Rather Requests
Matthew 7
1. Do Not Judge
7. Ask, Seek, Knock
13. Enter through the Narrow Gate
15. A Tree and Its Fruit
24. The Wise and the Foolish Builders
28. Jesus ends his sermon, and the people are astonished.














(11) If ye then, being evil.--The words at once recognise the fact of man's depravity, and assert that it is not total. In the midst of all our evil there is still that element of natural and pure affection which makes the fatherhood of men a fit parable of the Fatherhood of God. We mount from our love to His, abstracting from our thoughts the evil of which we cannot but be conscious.

Give good things to them that ask him.--The context shows that the "good things" are spiritual and not temporal gifts, the wisdom and insight which we all need, or rather (as in the parallel passage of Luke 11:13) the one gift of the Holy Spirit, which, in its sevenfold diversity, includes them all.

Verse 11. - Parallel passage: Luke 11:13. If ye then being evil. Application of the thought of vers. 9, 10, with further emphasis on the evil of human nature. If you with your moral worthlessness (Matthew 6:13, note), etc. (cf. also Matthew 12:34). Being (gyros). The presence here in the parallel passage of Luke of his common word ὑπάρχοντες points to St. Matthew's form of the sentence being the more original. Know; intuitively (οἴδατε). Notwithstanding, then, the evil bent of fallen human nature, there is some good still remaining. How much more shall your Father which is in heaven. "In quo nulla est malitia" (Bengel). Give good things. Observe:

(1) In the parallel passage in Luke, "the Holy Spirit," or, more strictly, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Πνεῦμα Αγιον). The historian of the early Church not unnaturally singles out that gift which ultimately produces all others; but St. Matthew, keeping to the general subject of wisdom, etc., in the treatment of our brethren, uses a more distributive expression which yet includes the particular gift asked for.

(2) Is the omission of the word "gifts" in this clause to be accounted for by our Lord not wishing to suggest that the grace asked for is so given as that it can afterwards be possessed apart from the Giver?

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
So
οὖν (oun)
Conjunction
Strong's 3767: Therefore, then. Apparently a primary word; certainly, or accordingly.

if
εἰ (ei)
Conjunction
Strong's 1487: If. A primary particle of conditionality; if, whether, that, etc.

you
ὑμεῖς (hymeis)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Nominative 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

who are
ὄντες (ontes)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

evil
πονηροὶ (ponēroi)
Adjective - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 4190: Evil, bad, wicked, malicious, slothful.

know how
οἴδατε (oidate)
Verb - Perfect Indicative Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 1492: To know, remember, appreciate.

to give
διδόναι (didonai)
Verb - Present Infinitive Active
Strong's 1325: To offer, give; I put, place. A prolonged form of a primary verb; to give.

good
ἀγαθὰ (agatha)
Adjective - Accusative Neuter Plural
Strong's 18: A primary word; 'good'.

gifts
δόματα (domata)
Noun - Accusative Neuter Plural
Strong's 1390: A gift, present. From the base of didomi; a present.

to
τοῖς (tois)
Article - Dative Neuter Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

your
ὑμῶν (hymōn)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

children,
τέκνοις (teknois)
Noun - Dative Neuter Plural
Strong's 5043: A child, descendent, inhabitant. From the base of timoria; a child.

how much
πόσῳ (posō)
Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun - Dative Neuter Singular
Strong's 4214: How much, how great, how many. From an absolute pos and hos; interrogative pronoun how much (plural) many).

more
μᾶλλον (mallon)
Adverb
Strong's 3123: More, rather. Neuter of the comparative of the same as malista; more) or rather.

{will}
(ho)
Article - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

your
ὑμῶν (hymōn)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

Father
Πατὴρ (Patēr)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3962: Father, (Heavenly) Father, ancestor, elder, senior. Apparently a primary word; a 'father'.

in
ἐν (en)
Preposition
Strong's 1722: In, on, among. A primary preposition denoting position, and instrumentality, i.e. A relation of rest; 'in, ' at, on, by, etc.

heaven
οὐρανοῖς (ouranois)
Noun - Dative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3772: Perhaps from the same as oros; the sky; by extension, heaven; by implication, happiness, power, eternity; specially, the Gospel.

give
δώσει (dōsei)
Verb - Future Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1325: To offer, give; I put, place. A prolonged form of a primary verb; to give.

good things
ἀγαθὰ (agatha)
Adjective - Accusative Neuter Plural
Strong's 18: A primary word; 'good'.

to those
τοῖς (tois)
Article - Dative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

who ask
αἰτοῦσιν (aitousin)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Dative Masculine Plural
Strong's 154: To ask, request, petition, demand. Of uncertain derivation; to ask.

Him!
αὐτόν (auton)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Accusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.


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NT Gospels: Matthew 7:11 If you then being evil know how (Matt. Mat Mt)
Matthew 7:10
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