So on hearing that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was for two days,
Parallel translations
- WEB When therefore he heard that he was sick, he stayed two days in the place where he was.
- KJV When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.
- NKJV So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.
- NASB So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was.
- NLT he stayed where he was for the next two days.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
On hearing of the sickness, Jesus deliberately stays two more days where He was. His delay is purposeful, not negligent.
Overview
The word 'therefore' ties this delay to His love just affirmed, showing it serves a loving purpose. By waiting, Jesus allows Lazarus to die so that a far greater work may follow. The episode teaches that God's delays often prepare for greater displays of His grace.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Isa 30:18Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore He rises to show you compassion, for the LORD is a just God. Blessed are all who wait for Him.
- Isa 55:8–9“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.
- Gen 43:29–31When Joseph looked up and saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother’s son, he asked, “Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about?” Then he declared, “May God be gracious to you, my son.”
- Gen 22:14And Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. So to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
- Gen 42:24And he turned away from them and wept. When he turned back and spoke to them, he took Simeon from them and had him bound before their eyes.
- Gen 44:1–5Then Joseph instructed his steward: “Fill the men’s sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each one’s silver in the mouth of his sack.
- Matt 15:22–28And a Canaanite woman from that region came to Him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is miserably possessed by a demon.”
- Gen 45:1–5Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Send everyone away from me!” So none of them were with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers.
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Christ at the center
John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.
How John 11:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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