Matthew 18:24
As he began the settlements, a debtor was brought to him owing ten thousand talents.
Note A talent was worth about twenty years’ wages for a laborer.
And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.
When he had begun to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
Note Ten thousand talents (about 300 metric tons of silver) represents an extremely large sum of money, equivalent to about 60,000,000 denarii, where one denarius was typical of one day’s wages for agricultural labor.
And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, that owed him ten thousand talents.
Related passages
From the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, grouped by the word they explain.
- owed
- Luke 7:41, 42; Luke 13:4; Luke 16:5, 7
- Matthew 18:24
- ten thousand.[Murias talanton ,] a myriad of talents, the highest number known in Greek arithmetical notation. According to Prideaux, the Roman talent was equal to 216£; ten thousand of which would amount to 2,160,000£. If the Jewish talent of silver be designed, which is estimated by the same learned writer at 450£., this sum amounts to 4,500,000£.; but if the gold talent is meant, which is equal to 7200£., then the amount is 72,000,000£. This immense sum represents our boundless obligations to God, and our utter incapacity, as sinners infinitely indebted to Divine justice, of paying one mite out of the talent.
- 1 Chronicles 29:7; Ezra 9:6; Psalm 38:4; Psalm 40:12; Psalm 130:3, 4