What Does Matthew 5:4 Mean?
Flourishing are those who mourn, for they are comforted.
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
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.THE KEY
The verse calls you flourishing while you mourn, before the grief lifts.
THE MEANING
Your grief is real, and it does not place you outside flourishing. Comfort is promised in the midst of mourning, so grief is seen without being made the final word.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that mourning means you are abandoned or have failed to flourish. The verse places mourning and flourishing in the same sentence.
THE ROOT
πενθοῦντες
penthountes
GROWS FROM
πενθ-
penth-
The Greek stem for mourning and grief, found in words for both the state of grief and the act of mourning.
The form translated “they that mourn” describes people in the condition of mourning now. The verse speaks to grief as it is being lived, while naming those who carry it flourishing.
ALSO GROWS
pénthos: grief, mourning
πένθος
This noun names the grief held by the mourners, keeping their sorrow visible rather than abstract.
penthéō: to mourn, grieve
πενθέω
This verb is the word-family behind the verse’s “they that mourn,” joining the present condition to the act of grieving.
παρακληθήσονται
paraklēthēsontai
GROWS FROM
παρακαλε-
parakale-
To comfort or encourage; in another sense, to urge or appeal.
“comforted” in this verse is paraklēthēsontai. Comfort here belongs to a word-family that also names consolation and the Comforter. Grief is not erased or dismissed; the promise is that comfort meets the mourner and remains.
ALSO GROWS
paraklēsis: consolation, comfort, encouragement
παράκλησις
This related noun shows the same family naming the consolation promised to those who mourn.
paraklētos: comforter, advocate
παράκλητος
This word names the Comforter in John 14:16, connecting the promise of comfort with an abiding presence.
THE PATTERN
Grief is named without being denied, and comfort meets it with nearness and sustaining care.
The LORD is near to those whose heart is broken, and delivers those crushed in breath.To set for those who mourn in Zion, to give them a headdress in place of ash, the oil of leaping for mourning, the garment of praise in place of a dimmed breath; that they might be called oaks of alignment, the planting of the LORD, that he might be adorned.Who comforts us in all our pressure, so that we are able to comfort those in every pressure, through the same comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.THE THREAD
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another one who comes alongside, that he may be with you for the ages.“Comforted” in this verse and “Comforter” in John 14:16 belong to the same Greek word-family. The promise meets mourning with a presence that abides.
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