What Does Luke 6:24 Mean?
But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your comfort in full.
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
But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.THE KEY
The woe rests on a stark image: the rich already have their consolation in hand, as though the payment has been received in full.
THE MEANING
The verse names the rich in the present and says their consolation is already received. Its force is severe: wealth can provide comfort that is fully possessed now. The word for consolation also belongs to a family that can mean comfort or appeal, giving the received comfort an unsettling edge.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that visible abundance proves lasting security: the rich may already have received the consolation their wealth provides.
THE ROOT
ἀπέχετε
apéchete
GROWS FROM
ἔχω (echō), in the compound ἀπέχω (apechō)
ἔχω means to have or hold; ἀπέχω can mean to have in full, receive in full, or hold at a distance.
“have received in full” in this verse is apéchete. The verb can carry the force of a completed receipt, stronger than simply coming into possession. The woe pictures consolation as already in hand.
ALSO GROWS
echō: to have, hold
ἔχω
This is the verb at the core of ἀπέχετε: the consolation is something the addressed already have.
apochē: abstinence, refraining
ἀποχή
This related form carries the sense of holding back or keeping away, another side of the ἀπέχω word family.
παράκλησιν
paraklēsin
GROWS FROM
παρακαλέω
parakaleō
The word family carries meanings of comfort and urging or appeal.
The noun translated “consolation” shares its family with a verb that can mean both comfort and urge or appeal. Comfort here belongs to a word family that can soothe or summon.
ALSO GROWS
parakaleō: to comfort, urge, or appeal
παρακαλέω
The related verb shows that consolation belongs to a family that can comfort or press an appeal.
paraklētos: advocate, helper
παράκλητος
This related term extends the family toward one who gives support, linking consolation with help.
THE PATTERN
What is held as present wealth can become the whole reward already received.
The one who leans his weight upon his riches falls, but the aligned bloom like a leaf.Therefore when you give compassion, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the actors do in the synagogues and in the broad streets, that they may have weight from humankind. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full.So is the one who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.THE THREAD
Therefore when you give compassion, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the actors do in the synagogues and in the broad streets, that they may have weight from humankind. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full.Matthew uses the same Greek verb, ἀπέχω (apechō), rendered “They have their reward,” that Luke uses for “ye have received your consolation.” The shared wording makes both verses sound like a settled account: the reward or comfort is already in hand.
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