Passages · Matthew 5:3-12
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"Meek" in Matthew 5:5 translates the Greek praeis, and the verse is a near-verbatim quotation of Psalm 37:11 — "the meek shall inherit the earth." Behind the Greek sits the Hebrew anawim: the lowly, the afflicted, the ones who have been wronged and have no recourse except God. The word names a social location, not a personality style. The Beatitude is not commending politeness or passivity; it is declaring that the people at the bottom — the ones God hears — are the ones who end up with the inheritance.
5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5:5 Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. 5:10 Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 5:11 Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 5:12 Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 5:4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. 5:5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 5:7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. 5:10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 5:11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 5:12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
The Beatitudes open the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew's first and longest discourse. Jesus has gone up a mountain — the setting deliberately echoes Moses at Sinai — sat down in the posture of a teacher, and begun with eight declarations about who stands in the place of God's favor. "Blessed are the meek" is the third. The word the WEB translates "the gentle" is the one most English readers know as "meek," and it is carrying far more history than either English word suggests.
"The gentle" (5:5) — the Greek is praeis, traditionally "meek." The promise attached to it quotes Psalm 37:11 nearly verbatim: "the meek shall inherit the earth." In that psalm, the meek are not the mild-mannered — they are the wronged, contrasted throughout with the wicked who prosper temporarily at their expense. Behind the Greek sits the Hebrew anawim, the word the Psalms and Prophets use for the poor and afflicted who have no recourse but YHWH. It describes where a person stands, not how they behave.
"Inherit the earth" (5:5) — in Psalm 37 the promise is concrete: the land the wicked are about to lose. Jesus lifts the promise out of its land-inheritance setting and places it in the kingdom frame the Beatitudes build — the same reversal, now cosmic in scope.
"Blessed" (every verse) — makarios, the word that opens each declaration. In the Greek Old Testament it renders the Hebrew ashre, the word that opens Psalm 1. It does not describe a feeling; it pronounces a verdict — this person stands in the place of God's favor. Nine uses in ten verses gives the passage its liturgical, almost formal register: these are declarations, not advice.
"Hunger and thirst after righteousness" (5:6) — the next verse's dikaiosynē carries the Hebrew tsedaqah: right relationship, justice enacted. The beatitude adjacent to the meek is about appetite for justice — which sits badly with reading meekness as passivity, and naturally beside reading it as the condition of those still waiting for justice.
"Blessed are you when people reproach you" (5:11) — at verse 11 the grammar shifts from "blessed are those" to "blessed are you." The audience being directly addressed is a community facing reproach and persecution — the anawim in real time. The declaration about the meek is not abstract for them.
This is the context Derekh — Hebrew for “the way” — holds for every passage in all 66 books, and where it stops and asks what you see.
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