Verses 28-30 form the third and final part of this difficult section. At least one thing is evident: these verses must be understood in light of the immediate context (verses 25-27) and in terms of their place within the overall structure of the Gospel. In the immediate context they affirm Jesus’ willingness to reveal the Father to whoever will accept his invitation. And in the flow of the Gospel they are spoken at a time when the people of Galilee and the nation’s religious leaders have rejected Jesus.
Come to me is a literal rendering of the Greek text and is the reading reflected in most all translations. It comes as an invitation of Jesus, and its meaning is straightforward and clear enough.
Who labor and are heavy laden is interpreted by Good News Translation as a construction in which the conjunction and links two verbs that say the same thing: “who are tired from carrying heavy loads.” Most other translations retain a form similar to that of the Greek text: “all you who labour and are overburdened” (New Jerusalem Bible) and “all whose work is hard, whose load is heavy.” Even more problematic than the form is the nature of the burden, which is easily misunderstood. It is the “yoke of the Jewish Law,” as is clearly brought out in the following verses through the use of the term “yoke” (see verses 29-30). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch completely restructures the verse in order to make the meaning unambiguous for its readers: “You are troubled by the commands which the teachers of the Law have placed upon you. Come to me; I will remove your burden.”
There are languages where the vocative all who labor and are heavy laden must come first, very much as in the Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch example cited. Translators can say “All of you who are tired from your work and the heavy loads you carry, come to me and I will give you rest.” But this retains the form and not the meaning, unlike Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch.
I will give you rest is quite clear and can usually be translated with a form similar to that of the text. Some translations will have “I will relieve you of your burdens” or “You will find rest with me.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .