More people know the Lord's Prayer by heart than any other passage in the Bible, and most of them learned it so early that they have never actually read it. Said at speed, it takes about fifteen seconds. Read slowly, it is a complete theology of prayer in fewer than seventy words.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

— Matthew 6:9–13, Berean Standard Bible

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

— Matthew 6:9–13, King James Version

This guide explains the setting, then each line, then the questions people ask most: why the version you say in church differs from your Bible, what "daily bread" and "lead us not into temptation" actually mean, and where the ending came from.

The setting: how not to pray

Jesus gives the prayer in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, and he introduces it with two warnings. Do not pray to be seen, like "the hypocrites" who pray on street corners; go into your room and shut the door (verses 5 and 6). And do not "babble on like pagans," who think many words will get a hearing, because "your Father knows what you need before you ask Him" (verses 7 and 8).

Then: "So then, this is how you should pray." The prayer is offered as a pattern for short, private, trusting prayer, not as a formula whose exact words carry power. That is why Luke's version can differ (see below) without anyone in the early church worrying about it.

Luke records a different occasion. A disciple watched Jesus pray and asked, "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1). Jesus answered with a shorter form of the same prayer.

"Our Father in heaven"

Two words set the tone. "Father" was not the usual way to address God in Jewish prayer of the period; it was Jesus's characteristic word, and he teaches his disciples to use it. Elsewhere he uses the Aramaic Abba, the intimate family word. Prayer, in this teaching, begins with relationship rather than ritual.

"Our," not "my." Even prayed alone behind a shut door, the prayer is plural throughout: our Father, our bread, our debts. No one prays it as an individual.

"In heaven" balances the intimacy. This Father is not a household deity; he is the God who rules everything. The two phrases together, close and great, are the whole prayer in miniature.

"Hallowed be Your name"

"Hallowed" means "made holy" or "treated as holy." The first request is not for anything we need but that God's name, his reputation and character, be honored as it deserves: on earth as it already is in heaven, where the seraphim cry "Holy, holy, holy" (Isaiah 6:3). The World English Bible renders it "may your name be kept holy." Praying this line means asking that God be seen for who he is, beginning with the person praying.

"Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven"

The second and third requests widen the first. God's kingdom is his rule; to pray for it to "come" is to ask for the day when everything is put right under him, and for that rule to advance now. "Your will be done" is the same request applied to the present, and it has a cost: Jesus prayed exactly these words in Gethsemane, "not as I will, but as You will" (Matthew 26:39), on his way to the cross.

"On earth as it is in heaven" governs all three of the first requests. Heaven is where God's name is honored, his rule is complete, and his will is done without resistance. The prayer asks for earth to catch up.

Notice that half the prayer is over before anyone asks for anything for themselves. The order is the lesson.

"Give us this day our daily bread"

Now the needs. "Bread" stands for everything needed to live, and "daily" translates a Greek word, epiousios, so rare that it appears almost nowhere else in ancient Greek literature; scholars still debate whether it means "for today," "for tomorrow," or "necessary for existence." All three point the same way: enough for now, asked for each day.

The background is the manna in the wilderness, gathered every morning and never stockpiled (Exodus 16:4). The prayer teaches daily dependence rather than long-term security, which is exactly what Jesus goes on to teach in the same chapter about not worrying about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34).

"And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors"

Matthew says "debts"; Luke says "sins"; many English-speaking churches say "trespasses." All three describe the same thing. "Debts" was a common Jewish way of speaking about sins, as obligations owed to God that cannot be repaid. "Trespasses" entered English through William Tyndale's translation and the Book of Common Prayer and has stayed in church use ever since.

The second half of the line is the one people stumble over. Does God's forgiveness depend on ours? Jesus clearly thought the two were connected: he adds a comment immediately after the prayer, the only line of the prayer he explains:

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive yours.

— Matthew 6:14–15, Berean Standard Bible

The point is not that we earn forgiveness by forgiving. It is that a person who has actually received forgiveness becomes forgiving, and a person who refuses to forgive shows that they have not understood what they were asking for. Jesus tells a whole parable about this in Matthew 18. Our article on forgiveness goes into the hard cases.

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one"

This line raises an obvious question: would God lead anyone into temptation? James says God tempts no one. The Greek word peirasmos means both "temptation" and "test" or "trial," and the request is best understood as "do not let us come into a trial we cannot bear" or "do not bring us to the point of testing." It is the prayer of someone who knows their own weakness. Jesus said the same to his disciples in Gethsemane: "Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak" (Matthew 26:41).

"Deliver us from evil" (King James Version) or "from the evil one" (most modern translations) is the positive side. The Greek can be read either way; in Matthew's Gospel, with its account of Jesus's own temptation by the devil, "the evil one" is the more likely sense. Jesus prays the same thing for his disciples in John 17:15.

"For thine is the kingdom…": where did the ending come from?

If you learned the prayer in a Protestant church, it ends with "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." If you open a modern Bible, those words are missing or in a footnote. Neither is a mistake.

The ending, called the doxology, is not in the earliest and best Greek manuscripts of Matthew. It appears in later manuscripts and in a very early Christian manual, the Didache, which shows that the church added a closing line of praise when it prayed the prayer in worship, probably within the first century. The King James Version, working from later manuscripts, included it; modern translations, working from earlier ones, note it. Catholics traditionally end the prayer at "deliver us from evil," which is why Catholic and Protestant congregations finish at different points. The World English Bible keeps it: "For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen."

Whether or not the words were in Matthew's original, they are a fitting way to end: the prayer began with God's name, kingdom, and will, and the doxology returns there.

Why Luke's version is shorter

Luke's form omits "who art in heaven," "Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven," and "deliver us from evil," and says "sins" for "debts":

Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.

— Luke 11:2–4, Berean Standard Bible

Jesus taught the prayer on more than one occasion and, like any teacher, in more than one form. Luke's version has the same five movements in fewer words. Its very existence tells you the prayer was meant as a pattern, not a fixed text. (The King James Version of Luke is longer because its later manuscripts had been harmonized with Matthew.)

How to pray it without rushing

  • Pray it in the first person plural, deliberately. "Our," "us," "we." Think of one specific person you are including.
  • Pause after each line. Let "hallowed be Your name" become a real request about one situation where God's name is not honored. Let "daily bread" name today's actual need.
  • Use it as a skeleton. Many Christians pray the prayer one line at a time, adding their own words under each heading. Half an hour goes by quickly this way.
  • Notice the order. God first, needs second, forgiveness and protection third. When your own prayers feel like a shopping list, this order corrects them.
  • Read the chapter around it. Matthew 6 puts the prayer between teaching on giving in secret and teaching on not worrying. The prayer is what the chapter's whole way of life sounds like.

For more on prayer in the Bible, see the prayer hub.

FAQ

Where is the Lord's Prayer in the Bible?

Matthew 6:9–13, in the Sermon on the Mount, and in a shorter form in Luke 11:2–4, where Jesus gives it in answer to a disciple's request to be taught to pray.

Why does my Bible not have "for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory"?

The closing doxology is absent from the earliest Greek manuscripts of Matthew and was added in church use very early. The King James Version includes it; most modern translations place it in a footnote. It is not wrong to say it; it is simply not part of the oldest text.

Should I say "debts," "trespasses," or "sins"?

Matthew's Greek says "debts," Luke's says "sins," and "trespasses" comes from William Tyndale's English translation and the Book of Common Prayer. All three mean the same thing. Use whichever your church uses.

What does "lead us not into temptation" mean?

The Greek word means both "temptation" and "trial." The request is that God would not bring us into a test beyond our strength, and would rescue us from evil. It is a prayer of humility about one's own weakness, the same one Jesus urged on his disciples in Gethsemane.

What does "daily bread" mean?

Everything needed to live, asked for one day at a time. The rare Greek word behind "daily" points to what is needed for today or for the coming day. The image comes from the manna, gathered each morning in the wilderness.