What Does Luke 6:25 Mean?
Woe to you who are filled now, for you will hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
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
Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.THE KEY
Today’s fullness and laughter do not guarantee tomorrow’s satisfaction or joy.
THE MEANING
Your present fullness does not guarantee that hunger stays away, and laughter in this moment does not make grief impossible. Satisfaction can give way to need, and laughter to mourning and tears.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that current abundance makes you invulnerable, or that laughter proves sorrow cannot reach you.
THE ROOT
ἐμπεπλησμένοι
empeplēsmenoi
GROWS FROM
πλη-
plē-
to fill or bring to fullness
The Greek form describes people standing in a state of having been filled. The next words expose the limit of that state: fullness now can give way to hunger.
ALSO GROWS
pimplēmi: to fill or make full
πίμπλημι
This verb family gives “full” its sense of a condition reached by being filled.
plērēs: full, complete
πλήρης
This related fullness word echoes the sense of completion that the verse shows can be temporary.
πεινάσετε
peinasete
GROWS FROM
πειν-
pein-
hunger or lack of food
The verb for future hunger shares its root with the present hunger in Luke 6:21. The same word holds both sides of the reversal: hunger now, or hunger ahead.
ALSO GROWS
peinaō: to hunger
πεινάω
This is the verb behind the verse’s promise that those who are full now will hunger.
peina: hunger, famine
πείνα
The related noun makes hunger visible as a condition of lack, not merely a passing appetite.
THE PATTERN
A present condition does not settle the future: the full can hunger, while the hungry can be filled.
The filled living soul tramples dripping honey, but to the hungry living soul every bitter thing is sweet.For he sates the thirsting living soul, and fills the hungry living soul with goodness.He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.THE THREAD
Flourishing are the hungering now, for you will be filled. Flourishing are the weeping now, for you will laugh.The same Greek hunger verb appears in “hunger now” and “ye shall hunger” in Luke 6:25. Together, the verses turn on when fullness and hunger meet a person.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us