What Does Matthew 15:23 Mean in the King James?

But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.

Matthew 15:23 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The disciples turn her audible persistence into their case for dismissal: what signals need to her becomes a nuisance to them.

THE MEANING

Her cry reaches the people around Jesus, and Jesus gives her no answer yet. The disciples treat the sound itself as a reason to send her away, making her need, in their telling, a disturbance to remove. The verse leaves Jesus’ silence unexplained.

THE ROOT

ἀπόλυσον

apolyson

GROWS FROM

λύω

lyō

To loosen, release, or untie.

“Send her away” in this verse is apolyson. The verb can carry the sense of dismissing someone or releasing them. Here, the disciples ask for a release that means separation from their presence; the same word family also reaches toward release that frees.

ALSO GROWS

apolysis: Release or dismissal.

ἀπόλυσις

This related word makes the dismissal sense explicit: the disciples want her removed from the scene.

lytron: Ransom, a price paid for release.

λύτρον

The same release family can describe freedom from bondage, revealing the tension between sending someone away and setting someone free.

THE PATTERN

A cry remains urgent even when silence or opposition meets it.

O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!

Habakkuk 1:2 · KJVThe speaker names the painful gap between crying out and receiving a response.

And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.

Mark 10:48 · KJVOthers try to silence the cry, but opposition does not make it less urgent.

THE THREAD

And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals.

Matthew 14:15 · KJV

The disciples use the same Greek command for “send away” when they bring Jesus the crowd’s need for food. Here, the request is to send away a woman whose cry has reached them; in both scenes, need is framed as something to move elsewhere.

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