Bible Strands
John 11:38
Jesus, once again deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jesus arrives at a cave tomb while Lazarus’s sister and a group of mourners wait, occurring immediately before He commands the removal of the entrance stone.
The words — ἐμβριμώμενος (embrimōmenos) literally means “being deeply moved” or “groaning,” describing Jesus’s internal reaction as He approaches the burial site.
The thread — The emotional weight mirrors John 11:33, while the physical detail of a stone sealing a cave tomb aligns with the burial preparations in Matthew 27:60 and the empty tomb report in Luke 24:2.
Why it lands — The text records Jesus physically standing before a sealed tomb before any intervention occurs, requiring the reader to acknowledge that divine action meets human reality without bypassing it.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.
Cross-references
- John 11:33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
- Matthew 27:60 and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut into the rock. Then he rolled a great stone across the entrance to the tomb and went away.
- Luke 24:2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
- Genesis 23:19 After this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field at Machpelah near Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan.
- Isaiah 22:16 What are you doing here, and who authorized you to carve out a tomb for yourself here—to chisel your tomb in the height and cut your resting place in the rock?
- Mark 8:12 Jesus sighed deeply in His spirit and said, “Why does this generation demand a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.”
- Mark 15:46 So Joseph bought a linen cloth, took down the body of Jesus, wrapped it in the cloth, and placed it in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.
- John 20:1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.
- Genesis 49:29 Then Jacob instructed them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite.
- Ezekiel 9:4 “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem,” said the LORD, “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men sighing and groaning over all the abominations committed there.”