Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
This and the following parable are in Matthew alone.
Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. "Then" - at the time referred to at the close of the preceding chapter, the time of the Lord's Second Coming to reward His faithful servants and take vengeance on the faithless. This verse supplies a key to the parable, whose object is, in the main, the same as that of the last parable-to illustrate the vigilant and expectant attitude of faith, in respect of which believers are described as "they that look for Him" (Hebrews 9:28), and "love His appearing" (2 Timothy 4:8). In the last parable it was that of servants waiting for their absent Lord; in this it is that of virgin-attendants on a Bride, whose duty it was to go forth at night with lamps, and be ready on the appearance of the Bridegroom to conduct the Bride to his house, and go in with him to the marriage. This entire and beautiful change of figure brings out the lesson of the former parable in quite a new light. But let it be observed that, just as in the parable of the Marriage Supper, so in this-the Bride does not come into view at all in this parable; the Virgins and the Bridegroom holding forth all the intended instruction: nor could believers be represented both as Bride and Bridal Attendants without incongruity.