The Parable of the Ten Virgins
Five are ready with oil, five are not — and the door shuts at midnight.
Ten virgins wait for the bridegroom with their lamps; five wise bring extra oil, five foolish do not. When the bridegroom is delayed and comes at midnight, the foolish are away buying oil, and the door is shut. Watch therefore, Jesus says, for ye know neither the day nor the hour.
The parable
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
They that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour.
What it means
All ten virgins look alike at first — all invited, all waiting, all with lamps, all drowsy during the delay. The difference is invisible until the crucial moment: five had oil in reserve, and five did not. Readiness that cannot be seen in the waiting becomes everything at the coming.
The oil represents whatever cannot be borrowed at the last minute — a genuine, prepared faith. When the foolish ask to share, the wise cannot; some things must be one's own, gathered in advance. This is not selfishness but reality: no one can enter on another's readiness.
The parable's point is stated plainly: watch. The bridegroom's delay tests everyone, and his coming is sudden. The tragedy is not that the foolish were wicked but that they were unprepared — and by the time they realised it, the door was shut. Christ calls his people to a readiness that lasts through the long, dark middle of the wait.