What Does Matthew 14:13 Mean?
When Jesus heard of it, he withdrew from there by boat to a wilderness place privately, and when the crowds heard, they followed him on their feet from the cities.
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
When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart: and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities.THE KEY
The same Greek verb “hear” begins both halves: Jesus hears and withdraws, then the crowd hears and follows him into the deserted place.
THE MEANING
The verse holds two acts of hearing together: Jesus hears and withdraws by ship; the people hear of him and follow on foot from the cities. Their movements converge in a place defined by absence, which becomes a meeting place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that withdrawal makes someone unreachable: the crowd hears where Jesus goes and follows him beyond the cities.
THE ROOT
ἀκούσας
akousas
GROWS FROM
ἀκου
The ἀκου- (akou-) stem means to hear or listen; it receives something through hearing.
“heard” in this verse is akousas. The verse repeats forms of ἀκούω (akouō, to hear): Jesus hears first, and then the people hear of him. Each act of hearing turns into movement, withdrawal for Jesus, pursuit for the crowd.
ALSO GROWS
akouō: hear, listen
ἀκούω
The two participles in the verse are forms of this verb, tying the two movements together.
akoē: hearing, report
ἀκοή
The crowd hears news of Jesus; the word family can name both hearing and what is heard.
hypakouō: heed, listen, obey
ὑπακούω
This compound extends the same hearing family toward heeding, while this verse shows hearing becoming physical movement.
ἔρημον
erēmon
GROWS FROM
ἐρημ
The ἐρημ- (erēm-) stem names desolation or being uninhabited.
“wilderness place” in this verse is erēmon. ἔρημον (erēmon, deserted) describes a place by its emptiness, not just its terrain. The surprise is that people leave the cities on foot and make this deserted place a meeting point.
ALSO GROWS
erēmos: deserted, solitary, desolate
ἔρημος
This is the adjective behind “desert”; its sense of being uninhabited sharpens the contrast with the crowd that arrives.
erēmia: desolation, wilderness
ἐρημία
The related noun names the condition of desolation that defines the place Jesus enters.
erēmoō: make desolate, lay waste
ἐρημόω
The same stem can describe the making of a place desolate, giving the word family an active as well as a descriptive edge.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
ישע
The root ישע (yashaʿ) means to deliver, bringing out of constriction into spaciousness.
“Jesus” in this verse is Yeshua. Matthew gives the name in Greek as Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous), reflecting the Hebrew name Yeshua, from ישע (yashaʿ, to deliver). The one at the center of this movement carries deliverance in his name as the people leave the cities and follow him into open country.
ALSO GROWS
yāšaʿ: deliver, rescue
יָשַׁע
This verb names the action held in the name Yeshua.
yəšûʿāh: deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun carries the same root into the state or act of being delivered.
hôšîaʿ: he delivered, rescued
הוֹשִׁיעַ
This verb form makes the root’s deliverance an action, not merely a title.
THE PATTERN
A place marked by desolation can become a meeting place when someone enters it and another finds or follows them there.
And the messenger of the LORD found her by the eye of the waters in the wilderness, by that eye on the road to Shur.But he himself pulled back into the wilderness and prayed.But he went out and began to herald it much, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer enter the city in plain sight, but stayed outside in the empty places, and they came to him from every side.THE THREAD
But he went out and began to herald it much, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer enter the city in plain sight, but stayed outside in the empty places, and they came to him from every side.Mark’s “desert places” translates a form from the same Greek ἐρημ- (erēm-) family as Matthew’s “desert place.” In both verses, a space named for desolation becomes a destination, and Mark makes the crowd’s arrival explicit: they come from every quarter.
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