What Does Mark 10:47 Mean?
When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, Son of David, have compassion on me.
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 when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.THE KEY
The cry names deliverance and asks for mercy as an act that reaches the one calling.
THE MEANING
Recognition becomes address: the one named as deliverance is met with a direct request for mercy. Jesus is יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshua), “deliverance”; Nazareth echoes נָצְרַת (Natzrat), “watcher’s place,” and David, דָּוִד (Dāwīd), carries the beloved association. “On me” makes the appeal particular: mercy is sought for this person here and now.
THE ROOT
ἐλέησον
eleēson
GROWS FROM
ἐλε-
ele-
Mercy, compassion; the Greek word family for showing mercy.
“have mercy” in this verse is eleēson. The plea asks for mercy as something that reaches and acts toward the speaker. The same family holds ἔλεος (éleos), “mercy,” beside ἐλεέω (eleeō), “show mercy,” joining the quality to its action.
ALSO GROWS
éleos: Mercy, compassion
ἔλεος
This noun names the mercy the speaker asks to receive.
eleeō: To show mercy
ἐλεέω
This verb makes mercy an action directed toward someone.
eleēmosynē: Almsgiving, acts of mercy
ἐλεημοσύνη
The same word family extends mercy into concrete acts toward others.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
ישע
yāšaʿ
To deliver, bring out; in this lens, movement from constriction toward spaciousness.
The Greek name Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous), “Jesus,” carries the Hebrew name יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshua), “deliverance,” linked to יָשַׁע (yāšaʿ), “deliver.” The cry names deliverance while asking mercy, giving the appeal a movement out of constriction toward spaciousness.
ALSO GROWS
yāšaʿ: To deliver, save
יָשַׁע
This verb is the action carried in the name Yeshua.
yešūʿāh: Deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun names the deliverance the appeal associates with Jesus.
mōšīaʿ: Deliverer
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This form names one who delivers, giving the name an active, personal force.
דָּוִד
Dāwīd
GROWS FROM
דּוֹד
dōd
Beloved; the word family also carries senses of affection and kinship.
“Son of David” names more than ancestry: David is linked to דּוֹד (dōd), “beloved.” The title brings belovedness into the cry’s address even as its center remains the immediate request for mercy.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: Beloved one; also uncle or kinsman
דּוֹד
Its consonants and name-family connect David with the sense of beloved.
dōdī: My beloved
דּוֹדִי
This form makes the beloved association personal and direct.
dōdīm: Loves, caresses
דּוֹדִים
This related form carries the family’s sense of affection into an expression of love.
THE PATTERN
A voiced cry makes hidden distress audible and opens it to response.
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the bending low of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their drivers. For I know their pains.This bowed one cries out, and the LORD hears him, and brings him out of all his narrow places.And behold, a woman of Canaan came out from the same borders and cried out to him, saying, Show me faithful love, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is badly held by a demon.THE THREAD
And behold, a woman of Canaan came out from the same borders and cried out to him, saying, Show me faithful love, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is badly held by a demon.Both verses use ἐλέησον (eleēson), “show mercy,” the same Greek imperative. Their repeated “Son of David” title joins the plea to the beloved name, while the shared verb keeps the appeal directed toward mercy.
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