Bible Strands
Luke 8:52
Meanwhile, everyone was weeping and mourning for her. But Jesus said, “Stop weeping; she is not dead but asleep.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses the assembled mourners inside Jairus’s house immediately after entering with only Peter, John, James, and the parents. He interrupts their public lament the moment they arrive to witness the girl’s reported death.
The words — The Greek ἔκλαιον (eklaion) means “they were weeping,” indicating continuous vocal grief, while ἐκόπτοντο (ekoptonto) refers to the formal mourning rituals performed by the crowd. Jesus directly counters this ongoing lament with a declarative statement redefining her condition.
The thread — Public weeping for the dead appears in 2 Samuel 18:33 as David laments Absalom and in Luke 23:27 where women wail for Jesus. The equation of death with sleep surfaces in John 11:4, where Jesus frames a fatal illness as a temporary state for divine glory.
Why it lands — The text records Jesus halting a cultural mourning practice by stating a present reality rather than offering comfort. It requires the reader to weigh whether grief should follow established custom or respond to the speaker’s direct claim.
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
And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth.
Cross-references
- 2 Samuel 18:33 The king was shaken and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he walked, he cried out, “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”
- Luke 23:27 A great number of people followed Him, including women who kept mourning and wailing for Him.
- John 11:4 When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
- Genesis 23:2 She died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went out to mourn and to weep for her.
- Genesis 27:34 When Esau heard his father’s words, he let out a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, O my father!”
- Exodus 24:17 And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop in the eyes of the Israelites.
- Jeremiah 9:17 This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Take note, and summon the wailing women; send for the most skillful among them.
- Zechariah 12:10 Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
- Matthew 11:17 ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’
- Mark 5:38 When they arrived at the house of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw the commotion and the people weeping and wailing loudly.