For many are invited, but few are chosen.

He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

But they paid no attention and went off — one to his field, another to his business.

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Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.

Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’

So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.

‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.

Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

—— Matthew 22: 3 - 5, 8 - 14 NIV

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