What Does Matthew 15:32 Mean?
Then Jesus called his disciples to himself and said, My insides turn toward the crowd, for they have remained with me now three days and have nothing to eat; and I will not send them away unfed, lest they come unstrung on the road.
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
Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.THE KEY
Jesus refuses to release hungry people onto a road that may loosen their strength, the Greek words for sending them away and fainting share the same root.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you as someone whose body can need food even while you remain close to Jesus. His compassion attends to that need before the journey continues.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that bodily need is spiritually irrelevant, or that closeness to Jesus means a person should simply endure depletion.
THE ROOT
ἀπολῦσαι
apolysai
GROWS FROM
λύω
λύω (lyō): to loosen, untie, release.
“send them away” in this verse is apolysai. The Greek sentence places ἀπολῦσαι (“send away”) beside ἐκλυθῶσιν (“faint”), and both carry the λυ stem of loosening. The words connect dismissal with the risk of physical depletion that Jesus refuses to leave unattended.
ALSO GROWS
eklyō: to loosen, weaken, grow faint
ἐκλύω
The same λυ stem appears in ἐκλυθῶσιν, the verse’s word for fainting; the sentence binds sending the crowd away to the risk of their strength giving way.
apolysis: release, dismissal
ἀπόλυσις
This noun belongs to the same ἀπολύω family, keeping the sense of release visible in the verse’s “send them away.”
σπλαγχνίζομαι
splagchnizomai
GROWS FROM
σπλαγχν
σπλάγχνα (splanchna): inward parts, bowels, the inner parts.
“my insides turn toward” in this verse is splagchnizomai. The word translated “compassion” is built from the Greek word for inward parts. It presents care as an inner, bodily response to the crowd’s condition, and here that response turns toward their hunger.
ALSO GROWS
splanchna: inward parts; also affection or compassion
σπλάγχνα
The noun at the base of this word gives compassion an inward, bodily image rather than the feel of distant sympathy.
eusplagchnos: tenderhearted, compassionate
εὔσπλαγχνος
This related word uses the same σπλαγχν stem to describe a tender heart, carrying the inward-parts image into another expression of care.
THE PATTERN
Compassion meets embodied need before a depleted person is sent onward.
For he sates the thirsting living soul, and fills the hungry living soul with goodness.He gives power to the faint, and to those without might he multiplies strength.And if I send them away unfed to their own homes, they will go slack along the way, for some of them have come from far.THE THREAD
And if I send them away unfed to their own homes, they will go slack along the way, for some of them have come from far.The Greek words for “send them away” and “faint” share the λυ stem of loosening. Mark makes the link explicit: the crowd’s hunger threatens their strength on the road, so compassion attends to their need before they go.
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