What Does Matthew 5:42 Mean in the King James?
Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
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 names refusal as a turning away: the request concerns not only what leaves your hand, but whether you turn away from the person asking.
THE MEANING
A request meets you as a person, not an abstraction. The verse holds open both an immediate gift and a loan, and describes turning away as the response withheld. Need stays visible when it reaches you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that refusal is only a neutral decision about property: the verse also names it as turning away from the person who asks.
THE ROOT
ἀποστραφῇς
apostraphēs
GROWS FROM
στρέφω
strephō
To turn or twist. In the verse, ἀπό (apo, away from) gives the turning its direction: away from the one asking.
English can make this sound like simply declining a loan, but the Greek verb pictures a turn away. The request brings another person into view; the response named here is about whether that encounter is turned aside.
ALSO GROWS
apostrephō: Turn away or turn back.
ἀποστρέφω
This is the verb family behind the verse’s warning: refusal is pictured as a change in direction away from the asker.
epistrephō: Turn back or return.
ἐπιστρέφω
This related form shows the same root can describe turning back toward something; the verse’s wording makes the direction of the turn matter.
THE PATTERN
When need reaches across the distance between people, the response is framed as giving rather than turning away.
But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.He coveteth greedily all the day long: but the righteous giveth and spareth not.And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?THE THREAD
Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.Luke repeats the same Greek verbs for “give” and “ask,” joining the request directly to the response. The parallel widens the picture: the encounter is not reduced to protecting what is yours.
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