What Does Luke 18:13 Mean?
And the tax collector, standing far off, would not so much as lift his eyes toward the heavens, but struck his breast, saying, God, cover me, the one who misses the mark.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.THE KEY
The word translated “merciful” belongs to the same Greek word family as “propitiation” and “mercy seat,” so the plea reaches toward covering what the confession exposes.
THE MEANING
You can bring what is missing into the open without pretending it is already repaired. This prayer places that truth before God as a request for mercy, whose Greek wording also carries the sense of atoning cover. The lowered gaze and struck chest make the plea bodily, not abstract.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that failure puts mercy out of reach dissolves here: the speaker asks for mercy precisely as he names himself a sinner.
THE ROOT
ἱλάσθητι
hilasthēti
GROWS FROM
ἱλάσκομαι
hilaskomai
To show mercy or be propitious; in this plea, the word carries the sense of making atonement.
“cover” in this verse is hilasthēti. “Be merciful” can sound like a request for kind feeling alone, but this Greek word family also names atoning provision and the place of atonement. The plea asks God to meet what is exposed with mercy that covers.
ALSO GROWS
hilasmos: Atoning means or propitiation.
ἱλασμός
This is the noun used in 1 John 2:2, linking the tax collector’s plea for mercy to language for atoning provision.
hilastērion: Mercy seat; place of atonement.
ἱλαστήριον
This branch gives the word family a place of meeting: mercy and the exposed need for covering come together.
ἁμαρτωλῷ
hamartōlō
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτάνω
hamartanō
To miss or err.
“the one who misses the mark” in this verse is hamartōlō. The Greek word translated “sinner” remains connected to the idea of missing. He names that condition without softening it, while the preceding plea places it within reach of mercy.
ALSO GROWS
hamartia: Missing; a failure or error.
ἁμαρτία
This familiar branch keeps the image of a miss within the word translated “sin.”
hamartēma: A miss or error.
ἁμάρτημα
This branch describes a particular failing, showing how the root can name what has gone wrong without making it unreachable.
THE PATTERN
When human need is named without self-defense, the text directs attention toward God’s provision of mercy and covering.
The slaughtered offerings of God are a broken breath; a broken and crushed heart, O God, you do not despise.Whom God set forth as a covering through trust in his blood, to show his alignment through the passing over of the missed marks that came before, in the holding back of God.Let us therefore draw near, with open speech, to the throne of favor, that we may receive compassion, and find favor to help in the right moment.THE THREAD
And he is the covering for our shortcomings, and not for ours alone, but also for the shortcomings of the whole world.The Greek noun ἱλασμός (hilasmos), meaning atoning provision, belongs to the same word family as ἱλάσθητι (hilasthēti), translated “be merciful.” The tax collector’s plea is therefore joined to the language of mercy that covers.
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