Matthew 8:20 (DBY)

Passage

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.

Nearby Context

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.

Matthew 8:22 But Jesus said to him, Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "jesus", "says", "foxes", "holes", "birds", "heaven", "roosting-places", and "where". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "jesus" and "says", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 19's "And a scribe came up and said..." into verse 21's "But another of his disciples said to...", so "jesus" and "says" 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 "jesus" and "says" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.