What Does Matthew 5:6 Mean?
Flourishing are those who hunger and thirst for alignment, for they are filled.
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 which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.THE KEY
The people still hungry for alignment are already called flourishing.
THE MEANING
Your hunger and thirst for alignment place you among the flourishing now; the ache does not disqualify you. The verse holds that desire within a promise: you will be filled, satisfied rather than left in lack.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that flourishing begins only after you have attained perfect alignment. Here, those still longing for it are already called flourishing.
THE ROOT
δικαιοσύνη
dikaiosynē
GROWS FROM
δικαι-
dikai-
Alignment; being right or in right relation.
The word carries the sense of alignment, not merely a status someone possesses. The verse calls the longing for that alignment flourishing before the longing is satisfied.
ALSO GROWS
dikaios: just, right, aligned
δίκαιος
This related word describes one who is in right relation, clarifying the direction of the hunger.
dikaioō: justify, set right
δικαιόω
This verb shows the same word family reaching toward what is made right or brought into alignment.
μακάριοι
makarioi
GROWS FROM
μακαρ-
makar-
Flourishing; a state of well-being.
The verse calls the hungry flourishing while they are still hungry. Their flourishing is not postponed until appetite disappears; it is already true of them as they long for alignment.
ALSO GROWS
makarios: flourishing, fortunate
μακάριος
This singular form underlies the verse’s plural μακάριοι (makarioi, flourishing ones), naming their present condition.
makarizō: call or consider flourishing, fortunate
μακαρίζω
This verbal branch makes the naming explicit: flourishing is recognized in people whose longing remains.
χορτασθήσονται
chortasthēsontai
GROWS FROM
χορταζ-
chortaz-
Feed until satisfied; sate.
“filled” in this verse is chortasthēsontai. The promise answers hunger and thirst with the language of being fed to satisfaction. Fulfillment is pictured as real nourishment reaching an appetite, not as an abstract prize.
ALSO GROWS
chortos: grass, fodder, pasture
χόρτος
This related noun evokes food that sustains a living creature, giving the promise a concrete, nourishing sense.
chortazō: feed, satisfy, fill to satiety
χορτάζω
This verb is the dictionary form behind the verse’s promise: the hungry are fed until satisfied.
THE PATTERN
Longing for God’s alignment is recognized as flourishing before that longing reaches satisfaction.
For he sates the thirsting living soul, and fills the hungry living soul with goodness.Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters, and whoever has no silver, come, break open and eat. Yes, come, break open wine and milk, without silver and without price.Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me shall never hunger, and the one who leans their full weight into me shall never thirst.THE THREAD
But seek first the governance of God and his alignment; and all these things will be added to you.The same Greek word, δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosynē, alignment), appears in both verses. Matthew 5:6 names hunger for alignment as flourishing; Matthew 6:33 places that same alignment among what is sought within God’s governance.
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