1618 | Matthew 5:4
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted. j
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth. k
6 Blessed are those who hunger and
thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. l
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, m
for they will see God. n
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God. o
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted
because of righteousness, p for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11“ Blessed are you when peo ple in sult
you, q per se cute you and false ly say all kinds of evil against you be cause of me.
12 Re joice and be glad, r be cause great is
your re ward in heav en, for in the same way they per se cut ed the proph ets who were be fore you. s
Salt and Light
13“ You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt los es its salt i ness, how can it be
5:4 j Isa 61:2, 3; Rev 7:17 5:5 k Ps 37:11; Ro 4:13 5:6 l Isa 55:1, 2 5:8 m Ps 24:3, 4 n Heb 12:14; Rev 22:4 5:9 o ver 44, 45; Ro 8:14 5:10 p 1Pe 3:14 5:11 q 1Pe 4:14 5:12 r Ac 5:41; 1Pe 4:13, 16 s Mt 23:31,
37; Ac 7:52; 1Th 2:15
5:13 t Mk 9:50; Lk 14:34, 35 5:14 u Jn 8:12 5:15 v Mk 4:21; Lk 8:16 5:16 w Mt 9:8 5:17 x Ro 3:31 5:18 y Lk 16:17 5:19 z Jas 2:10 made salty again? It is no lon ger good for any thing, ex cept to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. t
14“ You are the light of the world. u A
town built on a hill can not be hid den.
15 Nei ther do peo ple light a lamp and put
it un der a bowl. In stead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to ev ery one in the house. v 16 In the same way, let your light shine be fore oth ers, that they may see your good deeds and glo ri fy w your Fa ther in heaven.
The Fulfillment of the Law
17“ Do not think that I have come to
abol ish the Law or the Proph ets; I have not come to abol ish them but to ful fill them. x 18 For tru ly I tell you, un til heav en and earth dis ap pear, not the small est letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means dis ap pear from the Law un til ev ery thing is ac com plished. y 19 There fore any one who sets aside one of the least of these com mands z and teach es oth ers accord ing ly will be called least in the kingdom of heav en, but who ev er prac tic es and teach es these com mands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell
5:4 those who mourn. Repentance, whether over one’ s own sins or those of one’ s society, was often expressed in mourning. God promised future comfort to his people( Isa 40:1; 51:3; 61:2 – 3; 66:13). 5:5 the meek. Ps 37:11 promises that the meek( the humble, the lowly, those who depend on the Lord rather than themselves [ cf. Ps 37:9; cf. also“ poor in spirit” in Mt 5:3 ]) would inherit the earth. the earth. Although this could mean simply“ the land,” by Jesus’ day Jewish people spoke of the righteous“ inheriting the kingdom” and thus ruling the world( cf. Da 7:14). 5:8 the pure in heart. God would bless the“ pure in heart”( Ps 73:1). God’ s people in the end time would“ see” him. 5:9 the peacemakers. Some Judeans and Galileans believed that God would help them wage war against the Romans to establish God’ s kingdom, but Jesus assigns the kingdom instead to the meek( v. 5), those who show mercy( v. 7), those who are persecuted( v. 10), and those who make peace( v. 9). 5:10 theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Ancient writers sometimes bracketed off a special section of material by starting and finishing it with the same point— here, that“ the kingdom of heaven”( cf. v. 3, see also the article“ Kingdom,” p. 1616) will be given to the righteous and humble. 5:11 because of me. Jewish people spoke of suffering for God’ s name; Jesus thus may fill a divine role here. 5:12 persecuted the prophets. In Scripture, prophets sometimes faced persecution; by Jesus’ day, Jewish tradition highlighted this point even more. 5:13 salt loses its saltiness. Some commentators note that much ancient salt contained impurities, which could dissolve; but Jesus also uses a graphic image— how can true salt stop being salt? When asked what to do with unsalty salt, a later rabbi advised,“ Salt it with the afterbirth of a mule.” Mules are sterile and thus lack afterbirth; his point was that the question was stupid. If salt could lose its saltiness, what would it be useful for? Jesus compares a disciple who does not live out the values of the kingdom with unsalty salt— salt that cannot fulfill its purpose. 5:14 light of the world. God had called his people to be a light to the nations( Isa 42:6; 49:6), so his salvation would reach the ends of the earth( Isa 49:6). town built on a hill. Many ancient cities were built on hills; their lights could also make them visible against the horizon at night. 5:15 light a lamp and put it under a bowl. The most common oil lamps of this period were small enough to hold in the hand; placing such a lamp under a container would obscure and likely extinguish it. Invisible light was about as useful to ancient Galileans as was tasteless salt( v. 13). 5:18 truly I tell you. Lit.“ Amen, I tell you”;“ amen” normally concluded a prayer, and most scholars believe that beginning a saying this way implied distinctive authority. smallest letter. The smallest Hebrew letter was a yod, formed by a single stroke of the pen. One Jewish story recounted that the yod removed from Sarai’ s name( when it was changed to Sarah, Ge 17:15) protested to God from one generation to another, lamenting its removal from Scripture, until finally God put the yod back in the Bible. When Hoshea’ s name was changed to Joshua( Nu 13:16), a yod was reinserted in Scripture.“ So you see,” remarked Jewish teachers,“ not a single yod can pass from God’ s Word.” In a similar Jewish story, a yod protested that King Solomon was trying to remove it from Scripture;“ A thousand Solomons shall be uprooted,” God declared,“ but not a single yod will pass from my Word.” Such illustrations were merely graphic ways of emphasizing that all of God’ s Word must be respected; no part was too small to matter. 5:19 least of these commands. Jewish teachers sometimes spoke of the least and greatest commandments, and of people who were least and greatest in the kingdom. Normally they did not mean such statements as matters of mathematical precision, but as graphic ways of emphasizing the value of all the commandments. Thus, e. g., some later rabbis declared that the least commandment was