What Does Luke 5:16 Mean?
But he himself pulled back into the wilderness and prayed.
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 he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.THE KEY
The withdrawal is not a retreat from relationship; it is how he makes room for it.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you amid competing demands and shows Jesus repeatedly stepping away into deserted places to pray. Solitude here is not emptiness; it is space turned toward God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that stepping away always means abandoning what matters gives way here: he withdraws, and the verse names prayer as the purpose of that space.
THE ROOT
ὑποχωρῶν
hypochōrōn
GROWS FROM
χωρέω (chōreō), the base of ὑποχωρέω (hypochōreō)
To go, make room, or give way; with ὑπό (hypo, under or back), the compound means to withdraw or retire.
“pulled back” in this verse is hypochōrōn. English can make this sound like a simple exit, but the Greek verb carries the sense of stepping back or giving way. The continuing action in the sentence presents withdrawal as a repeated practice that makes room for prayer.
ALSO GROWS
chōreō: Go, give place, or make room.
χωρέω
This base meaning lets withdrawal appear as creating space, not merely disappearing.
anachōreō: Withdraw or retire.
ἀναχωρέω
This related compound uses the same verb base for stepping away, echoing the movement in this verse.
ἐρήμοις
erēmois
GROWS FROM
ἔρημος (erēmos), stem ἐρημ- (erēm-)
Deserted, uninhabited, or solitary.
The Greek has the plural ἐρήμοις (erēmois, deserted places), where the KJV has “the wilderness.” The plural fits the recurring movement: solitude is a space he enters, not only one destination.
ALSO GROWS
erēmia: Solitude or wilderness.
ἐρημία
This noun makes explicit the state of being in a deserted place.
erēmoō: Make desolate or lay waste.
ἐρημόω
The verb shows the same stem describing a place emptied of inhabitants.
προσευχόμενος
proseuchomenos
GROWS FROM
εὔχομαι (euchomai), in the compound προσεύχομαι (proseuchomai)
To pray, vow, or express a wish; προσεύχομαι means to pray toward God.
“prayed” in this verse is proseuchomenos. The verse does not present solitude as self-enclosure: its prayer word names a turning toward God. Withdrawal becomes space for relationship, not simply silence.
ALSO GROWS
euchē: Prayer or vow.
εὐχή
This noun shares the prayer root and can carry the sense of a spoken appeal or commitment.
proseuchē: Prayer.
προσευχή
This related noun names the act of prayer expressed by προσεύχομαι (proseuchomai).
THE PATTERN
Prayer repeatedly finds room in deliberate withdrawal from surrounding demands.
Now when Daniel perceived that the writing had been inscribed, he went into his house, and with his windows open in his upper room toward Jerusalem, he knelt on his knees three times in the day, and prayed, and extended his hands in thanks before his God, as he had done from before.A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, you are my God; at dawn I seek you. My living soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you in a dry and weary land, where there are no waters.And in the morning, while it was still dark, rising long before day, he went out and went away to an empty place, and there he prayed.THE THREAD
And it came to be in those days that he went out to the mountain to pray, and spent the whole night in prayer to God.Luke 6:12 uses the same Greek prayer verb, προσεύχομαι (proseuchomai, to pray), and its related noun προσευχή (proseuchē, prayer). The shared root reveals the same movement: he withdraws into a place apart and turns toward God, even through the night.
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