What Does Matthew 13:42 Mean in the King James?
And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse holds grief and bodily anguish together: the judgment is both wailed and ground between the teeth.
THE MEANING
Here, judgment is not abstract: those cast into the fiery furnace are in anguish, wailing and grinding their teeth. The verse gives that anguish both a voice and a bodily expression.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that this judgment is mild or merely inward regret: the verse names a furnace, wailing, and gnashing teeth.
THE ROOT
κλαυθμός
klauthmós
GROWS FROM
κλαυ-
klau-
Weep, mourn.
The noun κλαυθμός (klauthmós, weeping or wailing) grows from the verb κλαίω (klaíō, to weep). This is lament, not just a loud sound: the word carries grief into the scene.
ALSO GROWS
klaíō: To weep.
κλαίω
The verb beneath “wailing” shows that this sound is an expression of grief.
klauthmós: Weeping, wailing, or lament.
κλαυθμός
The noun names grief as an audible response in the verse.
βρυγμός
brygmós
GROWS FROM
βρυχ-/βρυγ- (brych-/bryg-)
Grind or gnash, especially the teeth.
βρυγμός (brygmós, gnashing) names the grinding itself, giving the verse a bodily sound alongside its lament. Together, these words make anguish audible as both weeping and the hard grinding of teeth.
ALSO GROWS
brychō: To grind or gnash the teeth.
βρύχω
The verb exposes the physical action beneath the noun “gnashing.”
brygmós: Gnashing or grinding.
βρυγμός
The noun places that grinding alongside the wailing as a second expression of anguish.
THE PATTERN
Scripture portrays judgment as anguish that surfaces in lament and the grinding of teeth.
But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish.THE THREAD
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.Luke uses the same Greek words κλαυθμός (klauthmós, weeping or wailing) and βρυγμός (brygmós, gnashing) found in Matthew, though the KJV renders the first as “weeping” here and “wailing” there. Luke names the exclusion as being thrust out while others are in the kingdom, sharpening the scene.
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