37. For by your words you will be justified and acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned and sentenced.
38. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, Teacher, we desire to see a sign or miracle from You [proving that You are what You claim to be].
39. But He replied to them, An evil and adulterous generation (a generation morally unfaithful to God) seeks and demands a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
40. For even as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. [Jonah 1:17.]
41. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, Someone more and greater than Jonah is here! [Jonah 3:5.]
42. The queen of the South will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, Someone more and greater than Solomon is here. [I Kings 10:1; II Chron. 9:1.]
43. But when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, it roams through dry [arid] places in search of rest, but it does not find any.
44. Then it says, I will go back to my house from which I came out. And when it arrives, it finds the place unoccupied, swept, put in order, and decorated.
45. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and make their home there. And the last condition of that man becomes worse than the first. So also shall it be with this wicked generation.
46. Jesus was still speaking to the people when behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak to Him.
47. Someone said to Him, Listen! Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak to You.