King James Version
Matthew 5
48 verses with commentary
The Sermon on the Mount
And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:
View commentary (4 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
Jesus ascends a mountain to teach, deliberately evoking Moses on Sinai. However, Jesus speaks with His own authority as the divine Lawgiver, not merely as a prophet. The 'disciples' here include both the Twelve and a broader circle of followers. This sermon establishes the constitution and character of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
V.
(1) What is known as the Sermon on the Mount is obviously placed by St. Matthew (who appears in the earliest traditions connected with his name as a collector of our Lord’s “Oracles” or discourses) in the fore-front of his record of His work, as a great pattern-discourse, that which more than any other represented the teaching with which He began His work. Few will fail to recognise the fitness...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**19. And he saith unto them, Follow me--**rather, as the same expression is rendered in Mark, "Come ye after Me" (Mr 1:17).
**and I will make you fishers of men--**raising them from a lower to a higher fishing, as David was from a lower to a higher feeding (Psa 78:70-72).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
Chapter Outline
Christ's sermon on the mount.(1-2)
Who are blessed.(3-12)
Exhortations and warnings.(13-16)
Christ came to confirm the law.(17-20)
The sixth commandment.(21-26)
The seventh commandment.(27-32)
The third commandment.(33-37)
The law of retaliation.(38-42)
The law of love explained.(43-48)
**Verses 1-2**
None will find happiness ...
Read full commentary →And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
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KJV Study Commentary
The posture of sitting indicates formal, authoritative teaching. In Jewish culture, rabbis sat while students stood or sat at their feet. Jesus opens His mouth to speak—emphasizing the deliberate, significant nature of what follows. This is not casual conversation but divine instruction.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
20. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 5
Chapter Outline
Christ's sermon on the mount.(1-2)
Who are blessed.(3-12)
Exhortations and warnings.(13-16)
Christ came to confirm the law.(17-20)
The sixth commandment.(21-26)
The seventh commandment.(27-32)
The third commandment.(33-37)
The law of retaliation.(38-42)
The law of love explained.(43-48)
**Verses 1-2**
None will find happiness ...
Read full commentary →The Beatitudes
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.</strong> This opening beatitude launches Jesus's revolutionary Sermon on the Mount by completely inverting worldly values and human expectations about blessing and happiness. The Greek word μακάριοι (<em>makarioi</em>, "blessed") doesn't merely denote subjective happiness or temporary emotional pleasure but declares objec...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(3) **Blessed.**—The word differs from that used in Matthew 23:39; Matthew 25:34, as expressing a permanent state of felicity, rather than the passive reception of a blessing bestowed by another.
**The poor in spirit.**—The limitation, as in “the pure *in heart,”* points to the region of life in which the poverty is found. In Luke 6:20 there is no such qualifying clause, and there the words speak ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**21. And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship--**rather, "in the ship," their fishing boat.
with Zebedee their father, mending their nets: and he called them.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 3-12**
Our Saviour here gives eight characters of blessed people, which represent to us the principal graces of a Christian. 1. The poor in spirit are happy. These bring their minds to their condition, when it is a low condition. They are humble and lowly in their own eyes. They see their want, bewail their guilt, and thirst after a Redeemer. The kingdom of grace is of such; the kingd...
Read full commentary →Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.</strong> The second beatitude seems paradoxical—how can mourners be blessed? Yet Jesus declares divine favor rests upon those who mourn, promising they will receive divine comfort. The Greek verb πενθέω (<em>pentheō</em>, "mourn") denotes intense grief, the deepest sorrow, the kind of anguish expressed at a loved one's death. This i...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(4) **They that mourn.**—The verb is commonly coupled with weeping (Mark 16:10; Luke 6:25; James 4:9; Revelation 18:15-19). Here, as before, there is an implied, though not an expressed, limitation. The “mourning” is not the sorrow of the world that worketh “death” (2Corinthians 7:10) for failure, suffering, and the consequences of sin, but the sorrow which flows out in the tears that cleanse, the...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**22. And they immediately left the ship and their father--**Mark adds an important clause: "They left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants" (Mr 1:20); showing that the family were in easy circumstances.
**and followed him--**Two harmonistic questions here arise: First, Was this the same calling as that recorded in Joh 1:35-42? Clearly not. For, (1) That call was given while ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 3-12**
Our Saviour here gives eight characters of blessed people, which represent to us the principal graces of a Christian. 1. The poor in spirit are happy. These bring their minds to their condition, when it is a low condition. They are humble and lowly in their own eyes. They see their want, bewail their guilt, and thirst after a Redeemer. The kingdom of grace is of such; the kingd...
Read full commentary →Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.</strong> The third beatitude pronounces divine blessing on meekness, a quality almost universally despised in both ancient and modern culture as weakness, passivity, or spinelessness. Yet Jesus declares the meek blessed and promises they will inherit the earth—a stunning reversal of worldly power dynamics and human expectations about ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(5) **The meek.**—The word so rendered was probably used by St. Matthew in its popular meaning, without any reference to the definition which ethical writers had given of it, but it may be worth while to recall Aristotle’s account of it (*Eth. Nicom.* v. 5) as the character of one who has the passion of resentment under control, and who is therefore tranquil and untroubled, as in part determining ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**23. And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues--**These were houses of local worship. It cannot be proved that they existed before the Babylonish captivity; but as they began to be erected soon after it, probably the idea was suggested by the religious inconveniences to which the captives had been subjected. In our Lord's time, the rule was to have one wherever ten learned me...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 3-12**
Our Saviour here gives eight characters of blessed people, which represent to us the principal graces of a Christian. 1. The poor in spirit are happy. These bring their minds to their condition, when it is a low condition. They are humble and lowly in their own eyes. They see their want, bewail their guilt, and thirst after a Redeemer. The kingdom of grace is of such; the kingd...
Read full commentary →Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.</strong> This fourth Beatitude presents a profound spiritual truth using the metaphor of physical hunger and thirst. The Greek word <em>peinao</em> (πεινάω, "hunger") and <em>dipsao</em> (διψάω, "thirst") describe intense, desperate longing—not casual interest but deep craving. Jesus elevates this be...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(6) **Which do hunger and thirst.**—We seem in this to hear the lesson which our Lord had learnt from the recent experience of the wilderness. The craving of bodily hunger has become a parable of that higher yearning after righteousness, that thirsting after God, even as the hart desireth the water-brooks, which is certain, in the end, to gain its full fruition. Desires after earthly goods are fru...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**24. And his fame went throughout all Syria--**reaching first to the part of it adjacent to Galilee, called Syro-Phoenicia (Mr 7:26), and thence extending far and wide.
**and they brought unto him all sick people--**all that were ailing or unwell. Those
**that were taken--**for this is a distinct class, not an explanation of the "unwell" class, as our translators understood it.
**with diver...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 3-12**
Our Saviour here gives eight characters of blessed people, which represent to us the principal graces of a Christian. 1. The poor in spirit are happy. These bring their minds to their condition, when it is a low condition. They are humble and lowly in their own eyes. They see their want, bewail their guilt, and thirst after a Redeemer. The kingdom of grace is of such; the kingd...
Read full commentary →Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
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KJV Study Commentary
This beatitude declares 'Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy' (Greek: μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες, 'blessed the merciful ones'). The blessing operates on the principle of divine reciprocity: those who show mercy (ἐλεέω, compassionate action toward the needy) will themselves receive mercy. This is not salvation by works but a demonstration that genuine faith produces merciful character....
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(7) **The merciful.**—The thought is the same as that afterwards embodied in the Lord’s Prayer. They who are pitiful towards men their brethren are *ipso facto* the objects of the divine pity. The negative aspect of the same truth is presented in James 2:13. In this case, the promised blessing tends to perpetuate and strengthen the grace which is thus rewarded. No motive to mercy is so constrainin...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**25. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis--**a region lying to the east of the Jordan, so called as containing ten cities, founded and chiefly inhabited by Greek settlers.
**and from Jerusalem, and from beyond Jordan--**meaning from Perea. Thus not only was all Palestine upheaved, but all the adjacent regions. But the more immediate object for which...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 3-12**
Our Saviour here gives eight characters of blessed people, which represent to us the principal graces of a Christian. 1. The poor in spirit are happy. These bring their minds to their condition, when it is a low condition. They are humble and lowly in their own eyes. They see their want, bewail their guilt, and thirst after a Redeemer. The kingdom of grace is of such; the kingd...
Read full commentary →Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
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KJV Study Commentary
This beatitude proclaims 'Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God' (Greek: καθαροὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ, 'pure in heart'). Purity here is not mere external ritual cleanliness but internal moral integrity. The 'heart' (καρδία) in Hebrew thought represents the center of volition, emotion, and moral decision-making. 'They shall see God' (θεὸν ὄψονται) promises direct vision and intimate knowledge ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(8) **Pure in heart.**—Here, as with the poor in spirit, the noun determines the region in which the purity is to be found—the “heart” as representing desires and affections, as the “spirit” represents the will and higher personality. The purity so described is not that which was the ideal of the Pharisee, outward and ceremonial, nor, again, was it limited, as the common language of Christians too...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 3-12**
Our Saviour here gives eight characters of blessed people, which represent to us the principal graces of a Christian. 1. The poor in spirit are happy. These bring their minds to their condition, when it is a low condition. They are humble and lowly in their own eyes. They see their want, bewail their guilt, and thirst after a Redeemer. The kingdom of grace is of such; the kingd...
Read full commentary →Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
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KJV Study Commentary
This beatitude states 'Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God' (Greek: εἰρηνοποιοί, 'peacemakers'). Peacemakers actively create peace (ποιέω, to make or do), not merely avoid conflict. They reflect God's character as the ultimate peacemaker who reconciles humanity to Himself through Christ. 'They shall be called children of God' (υἱοὶ θεοῦ κληθήσονται) indicates ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(9) **The peacemakers.**—Our version rightly distinguishes between the temper which is simply “peaceable” in itself (James 3:17), and this, the higher form of the same grace, acting energetically upon others. To be able to say with power to those who are bitter foes, “Sirs, ye are brethren”.(Acts 7:26), is nobler even than to strive,” as much as lieth in us, to live peaceably with all men” (Romans...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 5 Mt 5:1-16. The Beatitudes, and Their Bearing upon the World.
**1. And seeing the multitudes--**those mentioned in Mt 4:25.
**he went up into a mountain--**one of the dozen mountains which Robinson says there are in the vicinity of the Sea of Galilee, any one of them answering about equally well to the occasion. So charming is the whole landscape that the descriptions of it, from Josep...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 3-12**
Our Saviour here gives eight characters of blessed people, which represent to us the principal graces of a Christian. 1. The poor in spirit are happy. These bring their minds to their condition, when it is a low condition. They are humble and lowly in their own eyes. They see their want, bewail their guilt, and thirst after a Redeemer. The kingdom of grace is of such; the kingd...
Read full commentary →Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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KJV Study Commentary
This beatitude declares 'Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven' (Greek: δεδιωγμένοι ἕνεκεν δικαιοσύνης, 'having been persecuted on account of righteousness'). The passive voice indicates suffering inflicted by others, not self-imposed hardship. The critical qualifier 'for righteousness' sake' distinguishes suffering for faithful living f...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(10) **Persecuted for righteousness sake.**—Here again there is a profound significance in the order. The work of the peacemakers is not a light and easy work. Often, as of old, when we “labour for peace,” men “make them ready for battle” (Psalm 120:7); but not the less is the blessing sure to follow. Amid seeming failure or seeming success, those who are persecuted, not for opinions, but for righ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**2. And he opened his mouth--**a solemn way of arousing the reader's attention, and preparing him for something weighty. (Job 9:1; Ac 8:35; 10:34).
**and taught them, saying--**as follows.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 3-12**
Our Saviour here gives eight characters of blessed people, which represent to us the principal graces of a Christian. 1. The poor in spirit are happy. These bring their minds to their condition, when it is a low condition. They are humble and lowly in their own eyes. They see their want, bewail their guilt, and thirst after a Redeemer. The kingdom of grace is of such; the kingd...
Read full commentary →Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake . falsely: Gr. lying
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KJV Study Commentary
Jesus personalizes the persecution beatitude: 'Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake' (Greek: ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ, 'on account of me'). The shift from third person to second person ('ye') makes this directly applicable to disciples. Three forms of opposition are listed: verbal abuse (ὀνειδίσωσιν, 'revile'), active pe...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(11) **Blessed are ye.**—Here, for the first time, the beatitude is uttered, not as a general law, but as the portion of the listening disciples to whom the Teacher spoke. The words contain three forms, hardly three successive grades, of suffering: (1) the vague contempt. showing itself in gibes and nicknames; (2) persecution generally; (3) deliberate calumnies, such as those of the foul orgies an...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**3. Blessed--**Of the two words which our translators render "blessed," the one here used points more to what is inward, and so might be rendered "happy," in a lofty sense; while the other denotes rather what comes to us from without (as Mt 25:34). But the distinction is not always clearly carried out. One Hebrew word expresses both. On these precious Beatitudes, observe that though eight in numb...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 3-12**
Our Saviour here gives eight characters of blessed people, which represent to us the principal graces of a Christian. 1. The poor in spirit are happy. These bring their minds to their condition, when it is a low condition. They are humble and lowly in their own eyes. They see their want, bewail their guilt, and thirst after a Redeemer. The kingdom of grace is of such; the kingd...
Read full commentary →Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
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KJV Study Commentary
Jesus commands a counterintuitive response to persecution: 'Rejoice, and be exceeding glad' (Greek: χαίρετε καὶ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε, 'rejoice and exult greatly'). Two reasons are given: 'great is your reward in heaven' and 'so persecuted they the prophets.' The future reward transcends present suffering, providing eternal perspective. Linking disciples with prophets places them in the succession of faithfu...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(12) **Rejoice, and be exceeding glad.**—The second word implies a glorious and exulting joy. The same combination is found, possibly as an actual echo of its use here, in 1Peter 1:8; 1Peter 4:13; Revelation 19:7.
**Your reward.**—The teaching of Luke 17:10 shows that even here the reward is not “of debt, but of grace” (Romans 4:4). It may be added that the temper to which the “reward” is promised...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**4. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted--**This "mourning" must not be taken loosely for that feeling which is wrung from men under pressure of the ills of life, nor yet strictly for sorrow on account of committed sins. Evidently it is that entire feeling which the sense of our spiritual poverty begets; and so the second beatitude is but the complement of the first. The one i...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 3-12**
Our Saviour here gives eight characters of blessed people, which represent to us the principal graces of a Christian. 1. The poor in spirit are happy. These bring their minds to their condition, when it is a low condition. They are humble and lowly in their own eyes. They see their want, bewail their guilt, and thirst after a Redeemer. The kingdom of grace is of such; the kingd...
Read full commentary →Salt and Light
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
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KJV Study Commentary
Jesus declares 'Ye are the salt of the earth' (Greek: ὑμεῖς ἐστε τὸ ἅλας τῆς γῆς, 'you are the salt of the earth'), using emphatic pronoun construction. Salt in the ancient world served three primary functions: preservation, flavoring, and purification. Disciples as salt preserve society from moral decay, enhance life's goodness, and purify through righteous influence. The warning 'if the salt hav...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(13) **Ye are the salt of the earth.**—The words are spoken to the disciples in their ideal character, as the germ of a new Israel, called to a prophetic work, preserving the earth from moral putrescence and decay. The general reference to this antiseptic action of salt is (as in Colossians 4:6, and possibly in the symbolic act of Elisha, 2Kings 2:21) enough to give an adequate meaning to the word...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**5. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth--**This promise to the meek is but a repetition of Psa 37:11; only the word which our Evangelist renders "the meek," after the Septuagint, is the same which we have found so often translated "the poor," showing how closely allied these two features of character are. It is impossible, indeed, that "the poor in spirit" and "the mourners" in...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 13-16**
Ye are the salt of the earth. Mankind, lying in ignorance and wickedness, were as a vast heap, ready to putrify; but Christ sent forth his disciples, by their lives and doctrines to season it with knowledge and grace. If they are not such as they should be, they are as salt that has lost its savour. If a man can take up the profession of Christ, and yet remain graceless, no ot...
Read full commentary →Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.</strong> This declaration follows immediately after Jesus calling His disciples "the salt of the earth" (v.13), together comprising a bold vision of Christians' transformative role in society. Jesus doesn't say believers should become light or ought to be light—He declares they ARE light, stating ontological realit...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(14) **The light of the world.**—In its highest or truest sense the word belongs to Christ, and to Him only (John 1:9; John 8:12). The comparison to the “candle” or “lamp” in Matthew 5:15 shows, indeed, that even here the disciples are spoken of as shining in the world with a derived brightness flowing to them from the Fount of light.
**A city that is set on an hill.**—Assuming the Sermon on the M...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**6. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled--**"shall be saturated." "From this verse," says Tholuck, "the reference to the Old Testament background ceases." Surprising! On the contrary, none of these beatitudes is more manifestly dug out of the rich mine of the Old Testament. Indeed, how could any one who found in the Old Testament "the poor in s...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 13-16**
Ye are the salt of the earth. Mankind, lying in ignorance and wickedness, were as a vast heap, ready to putrify; but Christ sent forth his disciples, by their lives and doctrines to season it with knowledge and grace. If they are not such as they should be, they are as salt that has lost its savour. If a man can take up the profession of Christ, and yet remain graceless, no ot...
Read full commentary →Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. a bushel: the word in the original signifieth a measure containing about a pint less than a peck
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KJV Study Commentary
After declaring disciples to be light, Jesus commands them to shine publicly. A city on a hill cannot be hidden—it's visible from all directions. Christians are not called to private faith but public witness. Hiding one's light denies the very purpose of being illuminated by Christ.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(15) **Light a candle.**—The word so rendered was probably a portable lamp rather than a candle in the common meaning of the word. The candles of the seven-branched candlestick of the Temple were undoubtedly lamps supplied with oil, and so probably were the “candles” of household use. The word is not the same, however, as that used for the “lamps” of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Matthew 25:1), an...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**7. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy--**Beautiful is the connection between this and the preceding beatitude. The one has a natural tendency to beget the other. As for the words, they seem directly fetched from Psa 18:25, "With the merciful Thou wilt show Thyself merciful." Not that our mercifulness comes absolutely first. On the contrary, our Lord Himself expressly teaches u...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 13-16**
Ye are the salt of the earth. Mankind, lying in ignorance and wickedness, were as a vast heap, ready to putrify; but Christ sent forth his disciples, by their lives and doctrines to season it with knowledge and grace. If they are not such as they should be, they are as salt that has lost its savour. If a man can take up the profession of Christ, and yet remain graceless, no ot...
Read full commentary →Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.</strong> This verse concludes Jesus' metaphor of believers as "the light of the world" (5:14-15), providing the practical application. The imperative <em>lampsato</em> (λαμψάτω, "let shine") calls for deliberate, visible testimony through righteous living. The light is not som...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(16) **Let your light so shine.**—The English form of the sentence is somewhat misleading, or at least ambiguous. It is not simply, Let your light so shine that men may glorify; but, “Thus, like the lamp on its stand, let your light shine. . . .” The motive to publicity is, however, the direct opposite of the temper which led the Pharisee to his ostentatious prayers and almsgiving; not “to be seen...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**8. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God--**Here, too, we are on Old Testament ground. There the difference between outward and inward purity, and the acceptableness of the latter only in the sight of God, are everywhere taught. Nor is the "vision of God" strange to the Old Testament; and though it was an understood thing that this was not possible in the present life (Ex 33:20; ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 13-16**
Ye are the salt of the earth. Mankind, lying in ignorance and wickedness, were as a vast heap, ready to putrify; but Christ sent forth his disciples, by their lives and doctrines to season it with knowledge and grace. If they are not such as they should be, they are as salt that has lost its savour. If a man can take up the profession of Christ, and yet remain graceless, no ot...
Read full commentary →Christ Fulfills the Law
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse stands as a pivotal declaration in the Sermon on the Mount, addressing concerns that Jesus' ministry contradicts the Old Testament. The Greek word 'kataluo' (καταλύω) means to destroy, dismantle, or abolish. Jesus emphatically denies this intention. Instead, He came to 'fulfill' (πληρόω/plerosai) the Law and Prophets—to complete, accomplish, and bring to full expression. This fulfillmen...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(17) Here a new section of the discourse begins, and is carried on to the end of the chapter. From the ideal picture of the life of the society which He came to found, our Lord passes to a protest against the current teaching of the scribes, sometimes adhering to the letter and neglecting the spirit, sometimes overriding even the letter by unauthorised traditions—lowering the standard of righteous...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**9. Blessed are the peacemakers--**who not only study peace, but diffuse it.
**for they shall be called the children of God--**shall be called sons of God. Of all these beatitudes this is the only one which could hardly be expected to find its definite ground in the Old Testament; for that most glorious character of God, the likeness of which appears in the peacemakers, had yet to be revealed. ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 17-20**
Let none suppose that Christ allows his people to trifle with any commands of God's holy law. No sinner partakes of Christ's justifying righteousness, till he repents of his evil deeds. The mercy revealed in the gospel leads the believer to still deeper self-abhorrence. The law is the Christian's rule of duty, and he delights therein. If a man, pretending to be Christ's discip...
Read full commentary →For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
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KJV Study Commentary
Jesus intensifies His previous statement with solemn authority ('verily I say unto you'—ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν/amen lego hymin). The 'jot' (ἰῶτα/iota) is the smallest Hebrew letter (yod), while 'tittle' (κεραία/keraia) refers to the minute decorative strokes distinguishing similar Hebrew letters. Jesus affirms Scripture's absolute reliability down to its smallest components. The phrase 'till heaven and ea...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(18) **Verily.**—The first occurrence in the Gospel of the word so common in our Lord’s teaching seems the right place for dwelling on its meaning. It is the familiar *Amen* of the Church’s worship—the word which had been used in the same way in that of the wilderness (Numbers 5:22; Deuteronomy 27:15) and of the Temple (Psalm 41:13; Psalm 72:19, *et al*)*.* Coming from the Hebrew root for “fixed, ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**10. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, &c.--**How entirely this final beatitude has its ground in the Old Testament, is evident from the concluding words, where the encouragement held out to endure such persecutions consists in its being but a continuation of what was experienced by the Old Testament servants of God. But how, it may be asked, could such beautiful ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 17-20**
Let none suppose that Christ allows his people to trifle with any commands of God's holy law. No sinner partakes of Christ's justifying righteousness, till he repents of his evil deeds. The mercy revealed in the gospel leads the believer to still deeper self-abhorrence. The law is the Christian's rule of duty, and he delights therein. If a man, pretending to be Christ's discip...
Read full commentary →Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
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KJV Study Commentary
Jesus affirms the permanent authority of God's Law while warning against antinomianism. Breaking even 'least commandments' and teaching others to do so results in diminished status in the Kingdom. Greatness comes through obedience and faithful teaching, not through grace that ignores holiness.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(19) **Shall break one of these least commandments.**—The words seem at first to imply that even the ceremonial law was to be binding in its full extent upon Christ’s disciples. The usage of the time, however, confined the word to the moral laws of God (as in Ecclesiasticus 32:23-24), and throughout the New Testament it is never used in any other sense, with the possible exception of Hebrews 7:5; ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**11. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you--**or abuse you to your face, in opposition to backbiting. (See Mr 15:32).
**and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you, falsely, for my sake--**Observe this. He had before said, "for righteousness' sake." Here He identifies Himself and His cause with that of righteousness, binding up the cause of righteousness in the world with...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 17-20**
Let none suppose that Christ allows his people to trifle with any commands of God's holy law. No sinner partakes of Christ's justifying righteousness, till he repents of his evil deeds. The mercy revealed in the gospel leads the believer to still deeper self-abhorrence. The law is the Christian's rule of duty, and he delights therein. If a man, pretending to be Christ's discip...
Read full commentary →For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
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KJV Study Commentary
The shocking statement that righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees—the most religious people—reveals that external conformity is insufficient. True righteousness comes from the heart, not mere behavioral compliance. This verse introduces the deeper interpretation of the Law that follows.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(20) **Shall exceed.**—Better, *Shall abound more than.*
**Scribes and Pharisees.**—Here, for the first time, the scribes are mentioned in our Lord’s teaching. The frequent combination of the two words (thirteen times in the first three Gospels) implies that for the most part they were of the school of the Pharisees, just as the “chief priests” were, for the most part, of that of the Sadducees. Wh...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**12. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad--**"exult." In the corresponding passage of Luke (Lu 6:22, 23), where every indignity trying to flesh and blood is held forth as the probable lot of such as were faithful to Him, the word is even stronger than here: "leap," as if He would have their inward transport to overpower and absorb the sense of all these affronts and sufferings; nor will anything else d...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 17-20**
Let none suppose that Christ allows his people to trifle with any commands of God's holy law. No sinner partakes of Christ's justifying righteousness, till he repents of his evil deeds. The mercy revealed in the gospel leads the believer to still deeper self-abhorrence. The law is the Christian's rule of duty, and he delights therein. If a man, pretending to be Christ's discip...
Read full commentary →Anger and Reconciliation
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: by: or, to
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KJV Study Commentary
Jesus begins six antitheses contrasting superficial interpretations of the Law with His authoritative explanation. Murder was rightly condemned, but Jesus exposes the root sin: sinful anger. The Law addressed external actions; Jesus addresses internal attitudes that produce those actions.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(21) **By them of old time.**—There is no reasonable doubt that the marginal reading, *to them of old time,* is right. The construction is identical with that of Romans 9:12; Romans 9:26*;* Galatians 3:16; Revelation 6:11; Revelation 9:4. Two questions present themselves for answer: (1) Who were “they of old time”? (2) Who was the speaker of the words quoted? (1) The words are very general, and, a...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**13-16. We have here the practical application of the foregoing principles to those disciples who sat listening to them, and to their successors in all time. Our Lord, though He began by pronouncing certain characters to be blessed--**without express reference to any of His hearers--does not close the beatitudes without intimating that such characters were in existence, and that already they were...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 21-26**
The Jewish teachers had taught, that nothing except actual murder was forbidden by the sixth commandment. Thus they explained away its spiritual meaning. Christ showed the full meaning of this commandment; according to which we must be judged hereafter, and therefore ought to be ruled now. All rash anger is heart murder. By our brother, here, we are to understand any person, t...
Read full commentary →But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Raca: that is, Vain fellow
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KJV Study Commentary
Jesus equates anger with murder in principle. The Greek 'raca' means 'empty-headed' or 'worthless'—a contemptuous insult. Calling someone 'fool' (moros) questions their moral character, not just intelligence. Such contempt makes one liable to hell fire (Gehenna), showing God's serious view of interpersonal sin.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(22) **I say unto you.**—The *I* is emphasized in the Greek. It was this probably that, more than anything else, led to the feeling of wonder expressed in Matthew 7:28-29. The scribe in his teaching invariably referred to this Rabbi and that; the new Teacher spoke as one having a higher authority of His own.
**Angry . . . without a cause.**—The last three words are wanting in many of the best MSS....
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**13-16. We have here the practical application of the foregoing principles to those disciples who sat listening to them, and to their successors in all time. Our Lord, though He began by pronouncing certain characters to be blessed--**without express reference to any of His hearers--does not close the beatitudes without intimating that such characters were in existence, and that already they were...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 21-26**
The Jewish teachers had taught, that nothing except actual murder was forbidden by the sixth commandment. Thus they explained away its spiritual meaning. Christ showed the full meaning of this commandment; according to which we must be judged hereafter, and therefore ought to be ruled now. All rash anger is heart murder. By our brother, here, we are to understand any person, t...
Read full commentary →Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
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KJV Study Commentary
Worship means nothing if relationships are broken. Before offering sacrifice, reconciliation must occur. Jesus prioritizes horizontal relationships as essential to vertical worship. God refuses gifts from those unwilling to make peace with others.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(23) **If thou bring thy gift to the altar.**—Literally, *If thou shouldst be offering.* Our Lord was speaking to Jews as such, and paints, therefore, as it were, a scene in the Jewish Temple. The worshipper is about to offer a “gift” (the most generic term seems intentionally used to represent any kind of offering), and stands at the altar with the priest waiting to do his work. That is the right...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**13-16. We have here the practical application of the foregoing principles to those disciples who sat listening to them, and to their successors in all time. Our Lord, though He began by pronouncing certain characters to be blessed--**without express reference to any of His hearers--does not close the beatitudes without intimating that such characters were in existence, and that already they were...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 21-26**
The Jewish teachers had taught, that nothing except actual murder was forbidden by the sixth commandment. Thus they explained away its spiritual meaning. Christ showed the full meaning of this commandment; according to which we must be judged hereafter, and therefore ought to be ruled now. All rash anger is heart murder. By our brother, here, we are to understand any person, t...
Read full commentary →Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
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KJV Study Commentary
The command to 'leave there thy gift' before the altar demonstrates the radical priority of reconciliation. First reconcile, then worship. This doesn't suggest earning God's favor through peacemaking, but that true worship flows from a heart committed to peace and reconciliation.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(24) **Leave there thy gift.**—The words describe an act which would appear to men as a breach of liturgical propriety. To leave the gift and the priest, the act of sacrifice unfinished, would be strange and startling, yet that, our Lord teaches, were better than to sacrifice with the sense of a wrong unconfessed and unatoned for, and, *à fortiori,* better than the deeper evil of not being ready t...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**13-16. We have here the practical application of the foregoing principles to those disciples who sat listening to them, and to their successors in all time. Our Lord, though He began by pronouncing certain characters to be blessed--**without express reference to any of His hearers--does not close the beatitudes without intimating that such characters were in existence, and that already they were...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 21-26**
The Jewish teachers had taught, that nothing except actual murder was forbidden by the sixth commandment. Thus they explained away its spiritual meaning. Christ showed the full meaning of this commandment; according to which we must be judged hereafter, and therefore ought to be ruled now. All rash anger is heart murder. By our brother, here, we are to understand any person, t...
Read full commentary →Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
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KJV Study Commentary
Quick reconciliation with adversaries prevents escalating consequences. This applies both to legal disputes and spiritual realities. Unresolved sin leads to judgment. The urgency reflects both practical wisdom (settle lawsuits early) and spiritual reality (be reconciled to God before death).
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(25) **Agree with thine adversary.**—The imagery is changed, and returns to that of human tribunals, which has met us in Matthew 5:22. The man whom we have wronged appears as the “adversary,” the prosecutor bringing his charge against us. The impulse of the natural man at such a time, even if conscious of wrong, is to make the best of his case, to prevaricate, to recriminate. The truer wisdom, Chr...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**17. Think not that I am come--**that I came.
**to destroy the law, or the prophets--**that is, "the authority and principles of the Old Testament." (On the phrase, see Mt 7:12; 22:40; Lu 16:16; Ac 13:15). This general way of taking the phrase is much better than understanding "the law" and "the prophets" separately, and inquiring, as many good critics do, in what sense our Lord could be suppos...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 21-26**
The Jewish teachers had taught, that nothing except actual murder was forbidden by the sixth commandment. Thus they explained away its spiritual meaning. Christ showed the full meaning of this commandment; according to which we must be judged hereafter, and therefore ought to be ruled now. All rash anger is heart murder. By our brother, here, we are to understand any person, t...
Read full commentary →Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
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KJV Study Commentary
Complete payment of every debt before release reinforces the seriousness of unresolved sin. The 'uttermost farthing' (smallest coin) shows God's justice is thorough and complete. This parable warns about the impossibility of self-salvation—we cannot pay the debt of sin ourselves.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(26) **The uttermost farthing.**—The Greek word is derived from the Latin *quadrans,* the fourth part of the Roman *as,* a small copper or bronze coin which had become common in Palestine. The “mite,” half the *quadrans* (Mark 12:42), was the smallest coin in circulation. The “farthing” of Matthew 10:29 is a different word, and was applied to the tenth part of the drachma.
Do the words point to a ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**18. For verily I say unto you--**Here, for the first time, does that august expression occur in our Lord's recorded teaching, with which we have grown so familiar as hardly to reflect on its full import. It is the expression manifestly, of supreme legislative authority; and as the subject in connection with which it is uttered is the Moral Law, no higher claim to an authority strictly divine cou...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 21-26**
The Jewish teachers had taught, that nothing except actual murder was forbidden by the sixth commandment. Thus they explained away its spiritual meaning. Christ showed the full meaning of this commandment; according to which we must be judged hereafter, and therefore ought to be ruled now. All rash anger is heart murder. By our brother, here, we are to understand any person, t...
Read full commentary →Lust and Adultery
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
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KJV Study Commentary
Jesus quotes the Seventh Commandment against adultery, which the people knew and affirmed. But He will expand it to address the heart, not just the act. This pattern continues throughout the sermon: Jesus reveals the Law's true intent and exposes superficial obedience.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(27) **By them of old time.**—Omitted in the best MSS. If retained, translate as before, *to them of old time.* It was probably inserted for the sake of conformity with Matthew 5:21. Here the words are simply those of the divine commandment, but it is given as it was taught in the Rabbinic schools, simply in the narrowness of the letter, without any perception that here too the commandment was “ex...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**19. Whosoever therefore shall break--**rather, "dissolve," "annul," or "make invalid."
**one of these least commandments--**an expression equivalent to "one of the least of these commandments."
**and shall teach men so--**referring to the Pharisees and their teaching, as is plain from Mt 5:20, but of course embracing all similar schools and teaching in the Christian Church.
**he shall be c...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 27-32**
Victory over the desires of the heart, must be attended with painful exertions. But it must be done. Every thing is bestowed to save us from our sins, not in them. All our senses and powers must be kept from those things which lead to transgression. Those who lead others into temptation to sin, by dress or in other ways, or leave them in it, or expose them to it, make themselv...
Read full commentary →But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
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KJV Study Commentary
Lustful looking is adultery in the heart. The Greek implies intentional, prolonged gazing for the purpose of desiring. This isn't about fleeting temptation (which Jesus experienced without sin) but cultivating lustful thoughts. Jesus exposes that sexual sin begins in the mind, not just the body.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(28) **To lust after her.**—The intent is more strongly marked in the Greek than in the English. It is not the passing glance, not even the momentary impulse of desire, but the continued gaze by which the impulse is deliberately cherished till it becomes a passion. This noble and beautiful teaching, it has often been remarked, and by way of disparagement, is found elsewhere. Such disparagement is ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**20. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees--**The superiority to the Pharisaic righteousness here required is plainly in kind, not degree; for all Scripture teaches that entrance into God's kingdom, whether in its present or future stage, depends, not on the degree of our excellence in anything, but solely on our having the ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 27-32**
Victory over the desires of the heart, must be attended with painful exertions. But it must be done. Every thing is bestowed to save us from our sins, not in them. All our senses and powers must be kept from those things which lead to transgression. Those who lead others into temptation to sin, by dress or in other ways, or leave them in it, or expose them to it, make themselv...
Read full commentary →And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. offend: or, do cause thee to offend
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KJV Study Commentary
Hyperbolic language emphasizes the extreme seriousness of sin and need for radical action. Jesus doesn't command literal self-mutilation but ruthless elimination of sin's occasions. If something causes you to sin, remove it, no matter how valuable. Spiritual purity is worth any earthly sacrifice.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(29) **If thy right eye offend thee.**—The Greek verb means, strictly, to cause another to stumble or fall into a snare, and this was probably the sense in which the translators used the word “offend.” It is doubtful, however, whether it ever had this factitive sense in English outside the Authorised version, and the common use of the word gives so different a meaning that it cannot be regarded as...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**21. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time--**or, as in the Margin, "to them of old time." Which of these translations is the right one has been much controverted. Either of them is grammatically defensible, though the latter--"to the ancients"--is more consistent with New Testament usage (see the Greek of Ro 9:12, 26; Re 6:11; 9:4); and most critics decide in favor of it. But it is ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 27-32**
Victory over the desires of the heart, must be attended with painful exertions. But it must be done. Every thing is bestowed to save us from our sins, not in them. All our senses and powers must be kept from those things which lead to transgression. Those who lead others into temptation to sin, by dress or in other ways, or leave them in it, or expose them to it, make themselv...
Read full commentary →And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
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KJV Study Commentary
The right hand, being the dominant hand for most people, represents one's most valuable ability or possession. If even your greatest strength causes you to sin, eliminate it. This principle applies to relationships, entertainment, technology, ambitions—anything that leads to sin must go, regardless of cost.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(30) **If thy right hand offend thee.**—The repetition of the same form of warning has, in part, the emphasis of iteration, but it points also to a distinct danger. Not the senses only, through which we receive impressions, but the gifts and energies which issue in action, may become temptations to evil; and in that case, if the choice must be made, it were better to forfeit them. The true remedy ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**22. But I say unto you--**Mark the authoritative tone in which--as Himself the Lawgiver and Judge--Christ now gives the true sense, and explains the deep reach, of the commandment.
That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca! shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool! **sh...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 27-32**
Victory over the desires of the heart, must be attended with painful exertions. But it must be done. Every thing is bestowed to save us from our sins, not in them. All our senses and powers must be kept from those things which lead to transgression. Those who lead others into temptation to sin, by dress or in other ways, or leave them in it, or expose them to it, make themselv...
Read full commentary →Divorce
It hath been said , Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:
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KJV Study Commentary
Jesus addresses the Law's provision for divorce (Deuteronomy 24:1-4), which Moses allowed because of hard hearts. But divorce was never God's ideal. The 'writing of divorcement' was meant to protect women from being abandoned without legal status, but men abused this provision.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(31) **It hath been said.**—The better MSS. give, “*But* it was said,” as though stating an implied objection to the previous teaching. Men might think that they could avoid the sin of adultery by taking the easy course of divorcing one wife before marrying another.
**Whosoever shall put away . . .**—The quotation is given as the popular Rabbinic explanation of Deuteronomy 24:1, which, as our Lord...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**23. Therefore--**to apply the foregoing, and show its paramount importance.
**if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught--**of just complaint "against thee."
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 27-32**
Victory over the desires of the heart, must be attended with painful exertions. But it must be done. Every thing is bestowed to save us from our sins, not in them. All our senses and powers must be kept from those things which lead to transgression. Those who lead others into temptation to sin, by dress or in other ways, or leave them in it, or expose them to it, make themselv...
Read full commentary →But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
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KJV Study Commentary
Jesus permits divorce only for fornication (porneia—sexual immorality). Divorcing for other reasons makes the divorced person an adulteress if she remarries, and the man who marries her commits adultery. This protects marriage's sanctity and affirms God's creation design: one man, one woman, for life.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(32) **Saving for the cause of fornication.**—The most generic term seems intentionally used to include ante-nuptial as well as post-nuptial sin, possibly, indeed, with reference to the former only, seeing that the strict letter of the Law of Moses made death the punishment of the latter, and so excluded the possibility of the adultery of a second marriage. The words *causeth her to commit adulter...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**24. Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother--**The meaning evidently is--not, "dismiss from thine own breast all ill feeling," but "get thy brother to dismiss from his mind all grudge against thee."
**and then come and offer thy gift--**"The picture," says Tholuck, "is drawn from life. It transports us to the moment when the Israelite, having b...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 27-32**
Victory over the desires of the heart, must be attended with painful exertions. But it must be done. Every thing is bestowed to save us from our sins, not in them. All our senses and powers must be kept from those things which lead to transgression. Those who lead others into temptation to sin, by dress or in other ways, or leave them in it, or expose them to it, make themselv...
Read full commentary →Oaths
Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:
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KJV Study Commentary
Jesus addresses oath-taking, which Jewish law regulated carefully. Oaths invoked God's name or substitutes to guarantee truthfulness. But the practice had become corrupted—people used lesser oaths they felt free to break while claiming only God-oaths were truly binding.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(33) **By** **them of old time.**—Read, *to them of old time,* as before. Here, again, the reference is to the letter of the Law as taught by the Rabbis, who did not go beyond it to its wider spirit. To them the Third Commandment was simply a prohibition of perjury, as the Sixth was of murder, or the Seventh of adultery. They did not see that the holy name (Leviticus 19:12) might be profaned in ot...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**25. Agree with thine adversary--**thine opponent in a matter cognizable by law.
**quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him--**"to the magistrate," as in Lu 12:58.
**lest at any time--**here, rather, "lest at all," or simply "lest."
**the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge--**having pronounced thee in the wrong.
**deliver thee to the officer--**the official whose busin...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 33-37**
There is no reason to consider that solemn oaths in a court of justice, or on other proper occasions, are wrong, provided they are taken with due reverence. But all oaths taken without necessity, or in common conversation, must be sinful, as well as all those expressions which are appeals to God, though persons think thereby to evade the guilt of swearing. The worse men are, t...
Read full commentary →But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne:
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KJV Study Commentary
Jesus forbids oath-taking altogether among His disciples. Why? Because heaven is God's throne—you can't invoke it without invoking Him. All reality belongs to God, so every oath ultimately invokes Him whether intentionally or not. Better to simply be truthful always.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(34) **Swear not at all.**—Not a few interpreters, and even whole Christian communities, as *e.g.* the Society of Friends, see in these words, and in James 5:12, a formal prohibition of all oaths, either promissory or evidential, and look on the general practice of Christians, and the formal teaching of the Church of England in her Articles (*Art.* xxxix.), as simply an acquiescence in evil. The f...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**26. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing--**a fractional Roman coin, to which our "farthing" answers sufficiently well. That our Lord meant here merely to give a piece of prudential advice to his hearers, to keep out of the hands of the law and its officials by settling all disputes with one another privately, is not for a mom...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 33-37**
There is no reason to consider that solemn oaths in a court of justice, or on other proper occasions, are wrong, provided they are taken with due reverence. But all oaths taken without necessity, or in common conversation, must be sinful, as well as all those expressions which are appeals to God, though persons think thereby to evade the guilt of swearing. The worse men are, t...
Read full commentary →Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool : neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.
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KJV Study Commentary
Jesus continues closing loopholes: earth is God's footstool, Jerusalem is God's city, even your own head (you can't make one hair change color by will alone). Everything belongs to God and reflects His authority. Therefore, speak truth always, not just when formally swearing.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**27. Ye have heard that it was said--**The words "by," or "to them of old time," in this verse are insufficiently supported, and probably were not in the original text.
**Thou shall not commit adultery--**Interpreting this seventh, as they did the sixth commandment, the traditional perverters of the law restricted the breach of it to acts of criminal intercourse between, or with, married person...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 33-37**
There is no reason to consider that solemn oaths in a court of justice, or on other proper occasions, are wrong, provided they are taken with due reverence. But all oaths taken without necessity, or in common conversation, must be sinful, as well as all those expressions which are appeals to God, though persons think thereby to evade the guilt of swearing. The worse men are, t...
Read full commentary →Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
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KJV Study Commentary
You cannot even control your hair color naturally (in ancient times without dye), so how can you swear by your own head? This illustrates human powerlessness and God's sovereignty over even small details. Since you control nothing ultimately, speak humbly and truthfully, recognizing your limitations.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(36) **By** **thy head.**—This is apparently chosen as an extreme instance of a common oath in which men found no reference to God. Yet here, too, nothing but an implied reference to Him fits it to be an oath at all. He made us, and not we ourselves, and the hairs of our head are not only numbered, but are subject in all their changes to His laws, and not to our volition.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**28. But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her--**with the intent to do so, as the same expression is used in Mt 6:1; or, with the full consent of his will, to feed thereby his unholy desires.
**hath committed adultery with her already in his heart--**We are not to suppose, from the word here used--"adultery"--that our Lord means to restrict the breach of this comm...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 33-37**
There is no reason to consider that solemn oaths in a court of justice, or on other proper occasions, are wrong, provided they are taken with due reverence. But all oaths taken without necessity, or in common conversation, must be sinful, as well as all those expressions which are appeals to God, though persons think thereby to evade the guilt of swearing. The worse men are, t...
Read full commentary →But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
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KJV Study Commentary
Simple yes or no should suffice for honest people. Anything beyond this 'cometh of evil'—either from personal dishonesty requiring elaborate assurances, or from living in an evil world where people don't trust simple truth. Christians should be so consistently truthful that their simple word is trusted completely.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(37) **Let your communication.**—One of the few instances in which our translators seem to have preferred a somewhat pedantic Latin word for the more literal and homely English *speech.* (Comp. Luke 24:17.)
**Yea, yea.**—St. James reproduces the precept in James 5:12 of his Epistle, but the phrase is found in the Talmud, and was probably proverbial. In all common speech a man’s words should be as ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**29. And if thy right eye--**the readier and the dearer of the two.
**offend thee--**be a "trap spring," or as in the New Testament, be "an occasion of stumbling" to thee.
**pluck it out and cast it from thee--**implying a certain indignant promptitude, heedless of whatever cost to feeling the act may involve. Of course, it is not the eye simply of which our Lord speaks--as if execution were ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 33-37**
There is no reason to consider that solemn oaths in a court of justice, or on other proper occasions, are wrong, provided they are taken with due reverence. But all oaths taken without necessity, or in common conversation, must be sinful, as well as all those expressions which are appeals to God, though persons think thereby to evade the guilt of swearing. The worse men are, t...
Read full commentary →Retaliation
Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
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KJV Study Commentary
The lex talionis (law of retaliation) was a just principle limiting vengeance to proportional response—only an eye for an eye, not escalating violence. But Jesus calls His followers to go beyond justice to grace, beyond fair treatment to sacrificial love, beyond rights to mercy.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(38) **An eye for an eye.**—Here again the scribes first took their stand on the letter, regardless of the aim and purpose, of the Law, and then expanded it in a wrong direction. As originally given, it was a check on the “wild justice” of revenge. It said, where the equilibrium of right had been disturbed by outrage, that the work of the judge was not to do more than restore the equilibrium, unle...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**30. And if thy right hand--**the organ of action, to which the eye excites.
**offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable, &c.--**See on Mt 5:29. The repetition, in identical terms, of such stern truths and awful lessons seems characteristic of our Lord's manner of teaching. Compare Mr 9:43-48.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 38-42**
The plain instruction is, Suffer any injury that can be borne, for the sake of peace, committing your concerns to the Lord's keeping. And the sum of all is, that Christians must avoid disputing and striving. If any say, Flesh and blood cannot pass by such an affront, let them remember, that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God; and those who act upon right prin...
Read full commentary →But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
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KJV Study Commentary
Non-retaliation against evil doesn't mean passivity toward evil itself, but refusing to respond to personal wrongs with revenge. The struck cheek represents insult and humiliation (a backhanded slap). Turning the other cheek shows meekness, dignity, and refusal to be controlled by others' evil actions.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(39) **Resist not evil.**—The Greek, as before in Matthew 5:37, may be either masculine or neuter, and followed as it is by “whosoever,” the former seems preferable; only here it is not “the evil one,” with the emphasis of pre-eminence, but, as in 1Corinthians 5:13, the human evil-doer. Of that mightier “evil one” we are emphatically told that it is our duty to resist him (James 4:7).
**Shall smit...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**31. It hath been said--**This shortened form was perhaps intentional, to mark a transition from the commandments of the Decalogue to a civil enactment on the subject of divorce, quoted from De 24:1. The law of divorce--according to its strictness or laxity--has so intimate a bearing upon purity in the married life, that nothing could be more natural than to pass from the seventh commandment to t...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 38-42**
The plain instruction is, Suffer any injury that can be borne, for the sake of peace, committing your concerns to the Lord's keeping. And the sum of all is, that Christians must avoid disputing and striving. If any say, Flesh and blood cannot pass by such an affront, let them remember, that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God; and those who act upon right prin...
Read full commentary →And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.
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KJV Study Commentary
Roman law allowed soldiers to compel civilians to carry their pack for one mile. Jesus says go two—exceed the legal requirement. This transforms an imposed burden into voluntary service, converting forced labor into free grace, and disarming hostility through unexpected generosity.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(40) **If any man will sue thee at the law.**—The Greek is somewhat stronger: *If a man will go*—i.e., *is bent on going*—*to law with thee.* The verse presents another aspect of the same temper of forbearance. Not in regard to acts of violence only, but also in dealing with the petty litigation that disturbs so many men’s peace, it is better to yield than to insist on rights. St. Paul gives the s...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**32. But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery--**that is, drives her into it in case she marries again.
**and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced--**for anything short of conjugal infidelity.
**committeth adultery--**for if the commandment is broken by the one party, it must be by the other also. But...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 38-42**
The plain instruction is, Suffer any injury that can be borne, for the sake of peace, committing your concerns to the Lord's keeping. And the sum of all is, that Christians must avoid disputing and striving. If any say, Flesh and blood cannot pass by such an affront, let them remember, that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God; and those who act upon right prin...
Read full commentary →And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
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KJV Study Commentary
Give to those who ask, and don't turn away borrowers. This radical generosity reflects God's character and Kingdom economics. It requires trust that God will provide for you as you provide for others. This isn't endorsing foolishness but cultivating a fundamentally generous heart.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(41) **Whosoever shall compel thee.**—The Greek word implies the special compulsion of forced service as courier or messenger under Government, and was imported from the Persian postal system, organised on the plan of employing men thus impressed to convey Government dispatches from stage to stage (Herod. viii. 98). The use of the illustration here would seem to imply the adoption of the same syst...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**33. Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself--**These are not the precise words of Ex 20:7; but they express all that it was currently understood to condemn, namely, false swearing (Le 19:12, &c.). This is plain from what follows.
**But I say unto you, Swear not at all--**That this was meant to condemn swearing of every kind and on ev...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 38-42**
The plain instruction is, Suffer any injury that can be borne, for the sake of peace, committing your concerns to the Lord's keeping. And the sum of all is, that Christians must avoid disputing and striving. If any say, Flesh and blood cannot pass by such an affront, let them remember, that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God; and those who act upon right prin...
Read full commentary →Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
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KJV Study Commentary
Generous giving to borrowers opposes natural self-protection and hoarding. It trusts God's provision rather than personal accumulation. This doesn't mandate foolish enabling of destructive behavior, but challenges the grip of materialism and commands open-handed living.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(42) **Give to him that asketh.**—Here again our Lord teaches us by the method of a seeming paradox, and enforces a principle binding upon every one in the form of a rule which in its letter is binding upon no man. Were we to give to all men what they ask, we should in many cases be cursing, not blessing, them with our gifts. Not so does our Father give us what we ask in prayer; not so did Christ ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 38-42**
The plain instruction is, Suffer any injury that can be borne, for the sake of peace, committing your concerns to the Lord's keeping. And the sum of all is, that Christians must avoid disputing and striving. If any say, Flesh and blood cannot pass by such an affront, let them remember, that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God; and those who act upon right prin...
Read full commentary →Love Your Enemies
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
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KJV Study Commentary
The command to love neighbors was clear (Leviticus 19:18), but 'hate thine enemy' was an addition never commanded by God. Jewish tradition sometimes justified hostility toward Gentiles and enemies. Jesus exposes this distortion and will command the radical alternative: enemy-love.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(43) **Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.**—In form the latter clause was a Rabbinic addition to the former; and this is important as showing that our Lord deals throughout not with the Law as such, but with the scribes’ exposition of it. But it can hardly be said these words, as far as national enemies were concerned, were foreign to the spirit of the Law. The Israelites were pr...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**35. Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool--**(quoting Is 66:1);
**neither by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great King--**(quoting Psa 48:2).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 43-48**
The Jewish teachers by "neighbour" understood only those who were of their own country, nation, and religion, whom they were pleased to look upon as their friends. The Lord Jesus teaches that we must do all the real kindness we can to all, especially to their souls. We must pray for them. While many will render good for good, we must render good for evil; and this will speak a...
Read full commentary →But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
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KJV Study Commentary
Jesus commands the radical ethic: 'Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you' (Greek: ἀγαπᾶτε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ὑμῶν, 'love your enemies'). The verb ἀγαπᾶτε is not emotional affection but volitional commitment to another's good. Four progressive actions are commanded: love (internal disposition), bless (s...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(44) **Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you.**—The latter words are omitted in so many of the most ancient MSS. that most recent editors hold that they were inserted in the fourth or fifth century, so as to bring the verse into verbal agreement with Luke 6:28. Taking it as it stands here, we note (1) the extension of the command to love our neighbour (Leviticus 19:18), so that ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**36. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black--**In the other oaths specified, God's name was profaned quite as really as if His name had been uttered, because it was instantly suggested by the mention of His "throne," His "footstool," His "city." But in swearing by our own head and the like, the objection lies in their being "beyond our control," ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 43-48**
The Jewish teachers by "neighbour" understood only those who were of their own country, nation, and religion, whom they were pleased to look upon as their friends. The Lord Jesus teaches that we must do all the real kindness we can to all, especially to their souls. We must pray for them. While many will render good for good, we must render good for evil; and this will speak a...
Read full commentary →That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
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KJV Study Commentary
Enemy-love and prayer for persecutors reveal family resemblance to your Heavenly Father. God's common grace—sending rain and sun on righteous and wicked alike—models impartial benevolence. As God's children, Christians must reflect His indiscriminate kindness, not showing favoritism or withholding love based on merit.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(45) **That ye may be.**—Literally, and with far fuller meaning, *that ye may become.* We cannot become like God in power or wisdom. The attempt at that likeness to the Godhead was the cause of man’s fall, and leads evermore to a like issue; but we cannot err in striving to be like Him in His love. (Comp. St. Paul’s “followers [or, more literally, *imitators”*] of God” in Ephesians 5:1.) And the l...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**37. But let your communication--**"your word," in ordinary intercourse, be,
**Yea, yea; Nay, nay--**Let a simple Yes and No suffice in affirming the truth or the untruth of anything. (See Jas 5:12; 2Co 1:17, 18).
**for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil--**not "of the evil one"; though an equally correct rendering of the words, and one which some expositors prefer. It is true that ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 43-48**
The Jewish teachers by "neighbour" understood only those who were of their own country, nation, and religion, whom they were pleased to look upon as their friends. The Lord Jesus teaches that we must do all the real kindness we can to all, especially to their souls. We must pray for them. While many will render good for good, we must render good for evil; and this will speak a...
Read full commentary →For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
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KJV Study Commentary
Loving only those who love you merits no special reward—even corrupt tax collectors do that much. Such reciprocal love is natural, requiring no grace. Kingdom love goes beyond natural affection to supernatural love for enemies, reflecting God's character rather than mere human capacity.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(46) **The publicans.**—An account of the “publicans” of our Lord’s time will find a more fitting place in the Notes on Matthew 9:9. Here, it may be remarked that our Lord puts Himself, as it were, on the level of those to whom He speaks. They despised the publicans as below them, almost as a Pariah caste, and He speaks, as if He were using their own familiar language, yet with a widely different ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**38. Ye have heard that it hath been said--**(Ex 21:23-25; Le 24:19, 20; De 19:21).
**An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth--**that is, whatever penalty was regarded as a proper equivalent for these. This law of retribution--designed to take vengeance out of the hands of private persons, and commit it to the magistrate--was abused in the opposite way to the commandments of the Decalogue. W...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 43-48**
The Jewish teachers by "neighbour" understood only those who were of their own country, nation, and religion, whom they were pleased to look upon as their friends. The Lord Jesus teaches that we must do all the real kindness we can to all, especially to their souls. We must pray for them. While many will render good for good, we must render good for evil; and this will speak a...
Read full commentary →And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
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KJV Study Commentary
Greeting only your brothers is ordinary behavior that even pagans practice. Christians must exceed this baseline, showing kindness to outsiders, strangers, and enemies. This distinctive love becomes visible witness to the transforming power of the gospel and God's indiscriminate grace.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(47) **If ye salute your brethren.**—The prominence of salutation in the social life of the East gives a special vividness to this precept. To utter the formal “Peace be with you,” to follow that up by manifold compliments and wishes, was to recognise those whom men saluted as friends and brothers. But this the very heathen did (*heathen* rather than “publicans” being here the true reading): were ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**39. But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right check, turn to him the other also--**Our Lord's own meek, yet dignified bearing, when smitten rudely on the cheek (Joh 18:22, 23), and not literally presenting the other, is the best comment on these words. It is the preparedness, after one indignity, not to invite but to submit meekly to another, withou...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 43-48**
The Jewish teachers by "neighbour" understood only those who were of their own country, nation, and religion, whom they were pleased to look upon as their friends. The Lord Jesus teaches that we must do all the real kindness we can to all, especially to their souls. We must pray for them. While many will render good for good, we must render good for evil; and this will speak a...
Read full commentary →Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
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KJV Study Commentary
Jesus sets the ultimate standard: 'Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect' (Greek: τέλειοι, 'perfect/complete/mature'). The word τέλειος suggests completeness or reaching intended purpose, not sinless perfection. The conjunction 'therefore' (οὖν) connects this command to the preceding teaching on enemy-love - perfection is demonstrated in comprehensive, indiscri...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(48) **Be ye therefore perfect.**—Literally, *Ye therefore shall be perfect*—the ideal future that implies an imperative.
**Your Father which is in heaven.**—The better reading gives, *your heavenly Father.* The idea of perfection implied in the word here is that of the attainment of the end or ideal completeness of our being. In us that attainment implies growth, and the word is used (*e.g.,* in ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**40. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat--**the inner garment; in pledge for a debt (Ex 22:26, 27).
**let him have thy cloak also--**the outer and more costly garment. This overcoat was not allowed to be retained over night as a pledge from the poor because they used it for a bed covering.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 43-48**
The Jewish teachers by "neighbour" understood only those who were of their own country, nation, and religion, whom they were pleased to look upon as their friends. The Lord Jesus teaches that we must do all the real kindness we can to all, especially to their souls. We must pray for them. While many will render good for good, we must render good for evil; and this will speak a...
Read full commentary →