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The Lord's Prayer
One passage. Several ways in.
Matthew 6:9-13 · KJV
Five questions on the prayer in Matthew 6 — including the line most people say in the other Gospel's wording.
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About the Lord's Prayer
The prayer arrives in the middle of a passage about not making a performance of prayer. Jesus has just warned against praying to be seen and against “vain repetitions,” and then gives a model that takes about twenty seconds to say. The brevity is part of the instruction, not an accident of transmission.
Its shape is worth noticing. Three petitions come first and none of them is about the person praying: your name, your kingdom, your will. Only then does it turn to bread, forgiveness and testing. Nothing in the first half asks for anything the speaker needs, and nothing in the second half apologises for asking.
Two lines regularly get remembered in a different version. Matthew's wording is “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”; the familiar “trespasses” comes from later English prayer books, and Luke's parallel at 11:4 says “sins.” And the closing doxology — “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory” — is present in the King James Version at Matthew 6:13 but absent from the earliest manuscripts, which is why many modern translations set it apart or drop it.
Written and checked against the King James text by Random Bible. Last reviewed September 17, 2026.
The Lord's Prayer: common questions
Where is the Lord's Prayer in the Bible?
Matthew 6:9–13, inside the Sermon on the Mount. A shorter version appears in Luke 11:2–4, given when a disciple asks Jesus to teach them to pray.
Is it “debts” or “trespasses”?
Matthew 6:12 in the King James Version says “debts… debtors.” “Trespasses” comes from later English prayer books and is what many congregations say aloud; Luke 11:4 uses “sins.” All three are translating the same idea of what is owed and forgiven.
Why do some Bibles leave out “For thine is the kingdom”?
The closing doxology is in the King James Version at Matthew 6:13 but is missing from the earliest surviving manuscripts, so many modern translations move it to a footnote or set it apart.
How long is the Lord's Prayer?
Five verses, and about twenty seconds to say. Its shortness is deliberate — it directly follows a warning against long, repetitive prayer in Matthew 6:7.