What Does Romans 12:15 Mean?
Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.
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
Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.THE KEY
The same Greek “with” frames both rejoicing and weeping, so belonging holds steady when the feeling changes.
THE MEANING
Another person’s joy can enter your life without diminishing your own, and another’s grief can be met without being made to disappear. The verse describes belonging as shared presence across both states: joy is joined to joy, and tears are allowed company.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that another’s happiness takes something from you, or that sorrow becomes easier only when kept private.
THE ROOT
μετά
metá
GROWS FROM
μετα-
with, among; after in other constructions
The preposition μετά (metá, “with” or “among”) appears before both “them that do rejoice” and “them that weep.” Its grammar stays unchanged across celebration and grief: company is not reserved for one emotional state.
ALSO GROWS
metéchō: share in; partake
μετέχω
This compound uses μετά (metá, “with”) to express sharing, opening the verse’s companionship toward participation.
métochos: partner; participant
μέτοχος
This related word names someone who shares in something, echoing the company described in both halves of the verse.
χαιρόντων
chairóntōn chairō
GROWS FROM
χαιρ-/χαρ-
rejoice; be glad
The form χαιρόντων (chairóntōn) comes from χαίρω (chairō, “rejoice”), whose related forms include χαρά (chará, “joy”) and συγχαίρω (synchaírō, “rejoice together”). The verse carries the same rejoicing into company; it gives another person’s joy no separate, lesser category.
ALSO GROWS
chará: joy
χαρά
This noun names the joy held in the verse’s repeated act of rejoicing.
synchaírō: rejoice together
συγχαίρω
This compound joins the same rejoicing stem to the idea of sharing it with others.
κλαιόντων
klaióntōn klaíō
GROWS FROM
κλαι-
weep; cry aloud; lament
The form κλαιόντων (klaióntōn) comes from κλαίω (klaíō, “weep”), a word for expressed crying and lament. The verse places that action in parallel with rejoicing, keeping grief within the same field of belonging.
ALSO GROWS
kláma: weeping; a cry
κλάμα
This related noun makes the expressed sound of grief present in the verse’s image of weeping together.
klauthmós: weeping; lamentation
κλαυθμός
This related noun extends κλαίω (klaíō, “weep”) toward sustained lament, a sorrow that can also be accompanied.
THE PATTERN
Shared life carries another person’s joy and sorrow across the boundaries between individuals.
Rejoice with Jerusalem, and leap with her, all who love her. Exult with her in gladness, all who mourn for her.If one limb aches, all the limbs ache with it, and if one is clothed in weight, all of them rejoice with it.Carry one another's weights, and so you fill up the instruction of the Anointed One.THE THREAD
If one limb aches, all the limbs ache with it, and if one is clothed in weight, all of them rejoice with it.The word “rejoice” shares its Greek root χαίρω (chairō, “rejoice”) with συγχαίρω (synchaírō, “rejoice together”), used here for the members’ shared response to honor. The verse extends Romans’ paired joy and grief into the image of one body whose members feel one another’s experience.
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