Matthew 27:65

65 “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.”

Matthew 27:65 in Other Translations

65 Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can.

65 Pilate said to them, "You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can."

65 Pilate replied, “Take guards and secure it the best you can.”

65 Pilate told them, "You will have a guard. Go ahead and secure it the best you can."

65 "You have a guard [of soldiers]," Pilate told them. "Go and make it as secure as you know how."

Matthew 27:65 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 27:65

Pilate said unto them, ye have a watch
Meaning either the watch of the temple, said to be placed in the tower of Antonia, for the service of it: hence mention is made of the captain of the temple, ( Acts 4:1 ) , but it is not likely they would remove the temple guards, to watch a sepulchre night and day: or rather, therefore, the soldiers that had had the care of the crucifixion of Christ, and watched him on the cross, are designed: the words may be read imperatively, "have yea watch", or "take a watch", as the Ethiopic version renders it, and which seems best; for if they had a watch already, what occasion had they to have applied to Pilate for one? but having none, he gives them leave to take one, or such a number of soldiers as were sufficient:

go your way;
as fast as you can, take the watch as soon as you please, make no stay, but satisfy yourselves in this point:

make [it] as sure as you can;
or, as you know how to do it, and what will be proper and necessary.

Matthew 27:65 In-Context

63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’

64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”

65 “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.”

66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

Cross References

• 1. ver 66; Matthew 28:11