Matthew 8:19 (DBY)

Passage

And a scribe came up and said to him, Teacher, I will follow thee whithersoever thou mayest go.

Nearby Context

Matthew 8:17 so that that should be fulfilled which was spoken through Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities and bore our diseases.

Matthew 8:18 And Jesus, seeing great crowds around him, commanded to depart to the other side.

Matthew 8:19 And a scribe came up and said to him, Teacher, I will follow thee whithersoever thou mayest go.

Matthew 8:20 And Jesus says to him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven roosting-places; but the Son of man has not where he may lay his head.

Matthew 8:21 But another of his disciples said to him, Lord, suffer me first to go away and bury my father.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "scribe", "came", "said", "teacher", "follow", "thee", "whithersoever", and "thou". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "scribe" and "came", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 18's "And Jesus seeing great crowds around him..." into verse 20's "And Jesus says to him The foxes...", so "scribe" and "came" belong inside that flow. In Matthew context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "scribe" and "came" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.