Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof

"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" is an aphorism which appears in the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6 — Matthew 6:34.[1]

Under a railway bridge across the Weavers' Way.

It implies that we should not worry about the future, since each day contains an ample burden of evils and suffering.

The same words, in Hebrew, are used to express the same thought in the Rabbinic Jewish saying dyya l'tzara b'shaata (דיה לצרה בשעתה), "the suffering of the (present) hour is enough for it".[2]

The original Koine Greek reads ἀρκετὸν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἡ κακία αὐτῆς (arketon tē hēmera hē kakia autes); alternative translations include:[3]

  • "Each day has enough trouble of its own." (New American Standard Bible)
  • "There is no need to add to the troubles each day brings" (Today's English Version)

It is also similar to the Epicurean advice of writers such as Anacreon and Horace — quid sit futurum cras, fuge quaerere (avoid asking what the future will bring) —

However, Jesus's sermon has sometimes been interpreted to mean that God knows everyone's needs.[4]

Sermons

Dr Thomas Sheridan wrote an eloquent sermon upon this text on the occasion of the death of Queen Anne. He absent-mindedly reused it for the anniversary of the accession of King George I and was, on this account, suspected of being a Jacobite and lost his chaplaincy.[5]

References
  1. Thomas Curtis (1829), The London encyclopaedia, 21
  2. Babylonian TalmudBerakhot 9b
  3. J Frank (1971), The Use of Modern Translations and Their Effect in Replacing the King James Version (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-12
  4. John Albert Broadus (1886), Commentary on Matthew, p. 151, ISBN 978-0-8254-2283-6
  5. "An Irish Bull", The Victoria history of England, Routledge, Warne & Routledge, 1865
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