Matthew 9:24
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
He said to them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleeps. And they laughed him to scorn.
American King James Version (AKJV)
He said to them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleeps. And they laughed him to scorn.
American Standard Version (ASV)
he said, Give place: for the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
He said, Make room; for the girl is not dead, but sleeping. And they were laughing at him.
Webster's Revision
He said to them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they derided him.
World English Bible
he said to them, "Make room, because the girl isn't dead, but sleeping." They were ridiculing him.
English Revised Version (ERV)
he said, Give place: for the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.
Clarke's Matthew 9:24 Bible Commentary
The maid is not dead, but sleepeth - That is, she is not dead so as to continue under the power of death; but shall be raised from it as a, person is from natural sleep.
They laughed him to scorn - Κατεγελων αυτον, they ridiculed him; from κατα, intensive, and γελαω, I:laugh: - they grinned a ghastly smile, expressive of the contempt they felt for his person and knowledge. People of the world generally ridicule those truths which they neither comprehend nor love, and deride those who publish them; but a faithful minister of God, (copying the example of Christ), keeps on his way, and does the work of his Lord and Master.
Barnes's Matthew 9:24 Bible Commentary
The maid is not dead, but sleepeth - It cannot be supposed that our Lord means "literally" to say that the child was not dead.
Every possible evidence of her death had been given, and he acted on that himself, and conveyed to the people the idea that he raised her "from the dead." He meant to speak in opposition to their opinions. It is not unlikely that Jairus and the people favored the opinions of the Sadducees, and that "they" understood by her being dead that she had "ceased to be," and that she would never be raised up again. In opposition to this, the Saviour used the expression "she sleepeth;" affirming mildly both that the "body" was dead, and "implying" that "her spirit" still lived, and that she would be raised up again. A similar mode of speaking occurs in John 11:11 "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." The sacred writers often spoke of the pious dead as "sleeping," 2 Peter 3:4; Acts 7:60; 1 Corinthians 15:6, 1 Corinthians 15:18; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-15. The meaning of this passage, then, is, the maid has not ceased to "exist;" but, though her body is dead, yet her spirit lives, and she sleeps in the hope of the resurrection.
Laughed him to scorn - Derided him; ridiculed him.
Wesley's Matthew 9:24 Bible Commentary
9:24 Withdraw - There is no need of you now; for the maid is not dead - Her life is not at an end; but sleepeth - This is only a temporary suspension of sense and motion, which should rather be termed sleep than death.
