What Does Matthew 6:29 Mean?
But I say to you, not even Solomon in all his weight was wrapped as one of these.
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 yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.THE KEY
A flower’s received covering surpasses the weight a king can gather.
THE MEANING
The verse directs your attention to a beauty that arrives as covering, not as royal display. Even Solomon in all his weight cannot match one flower’s adornment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that beauty must be earned or displayed through rank and accumulation to count.
THE ROOT
περιεβάλετο
periebaleto
GROWS FROM
βάλλω
ballō
To throw or cast; with περί (peri, around), to put or cast around.
The verb pictures a covering put around the body, a detail the English “arrayed” can hide. The flower’s splendor appears as something wrapped around it, rather than royal display it assembles for itself.
ALSO GROWS
periballō: Put around; clothe
περιβάλλω
This is the verb behind “arrayed,” making the covering itself central to the image.
epiballō: Lay upon; put on
ἐπιβάλλω
It shares the sense of something being placed upon, reinforcing the image of adornment as covering.
ekballō: Cast out; drive out
ἐκβάλλω
It preserves the root’s concrete sense of casting, showing how the surrounding prefix shapes the direction of the action.
δόξῃ
doxē
GROWS FROM
δόξα
doxa
Weight: the esteem or honor carried by someone or something.
Solomon’s full weight of esteem still cannot match the flower’s covering. The comparison places royal stature beside a beauty that is already present without the king’s display.
ALSO GROWS
doxazō: Glorify; honor
δοξάζω
The verb expresses the act of giving honor or weight, clarifying the esteem bound up in Solomon’s glory.
endoxos: Honored; glorious
ἔνδοξος
This describes what is held in esteem, echoing the public splendor the verse sets beside the flower.
שְׁלֹמֹה
Shelomoh
GROWS FROM
שָׁלַם
shalam
To be whole or complete.
Solomon’s name is associated with shalom, wholeness. Even the king whose name carries that echo of completeness cannot outshine one flower’s covering.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness; peace
שָׁלוֹם
This related word brings the name’s echo of completeness into view beside the flower’s full adornment.
shalem: Whole; complete
שָׁלֵם
This form makes the root’s sense of completeness explicit, sharpening the contrast with Solomon’s unmatched royal splendor.
THE PATTERN
Splendor that surpasses human display is received as covering rather than gathered through rank.
And the LORD God made tunics of skin for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.I will exult greatly in the LORD; my living soul shall leap in my God; for he has clothed me in garments of deliverance, he has wrapped me in the robe of alignment, as a bridegroom dons a headdress, and as a bride binds on her jewels.So if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, you who lean your weight on him so little?THE THREAD
The one who overcomes will be wrapped in white. I will never wipe his name from the scroll of life, but I will speak his name in agreement before the face of my Father, and before the face of his messengers.“Shall be clothed” translates περιβαλεῖται (peribaleitai), from the same verb περιβάλλω (periballō) as “arrayed” in Matthew. The shared verb opens the flower’s covering into a recurring image of splendor received.
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