Meanwhile, everyone was weeping and mourning for her. But Jesus said, “Stop weeping; she is not dead but asleep.”
Parallel translations
- WEB All were weeping and mourning her, but he said, “Don’t weep. She isn’t dead, but sleeping.”
- KJV And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth.
- NKJV Now all wept and mourned for her; but He said, “Do not weep; she is not dead, but sleeping.”
- NASB Now they were all weeping and mourning for her; but He said, “Stop weeping, for she has not died, but is asleep.”
- NLT The house was filled with people weeping and wailing, but he said, “Stop the weeping! She isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.”
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
Amid the mourners' weeping, Jesus says the girl is not dead but sleeping. He speaks of her death as a sleep from which He will wake her.
Overview
Jesus tells the mourners the child is sleeping, not because she has not truly died, but because for Him her death is no more permanent than sleep. The language reflects His authority to reverse it as easily as waking someone. It anticipates the Christian hope that, in Christ, death becomes a sleep awaiting resurrection.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- John 11:4When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
- Luke 23:27A great number of people followed Him, including women who kept mourning and wailing for Him.
- Gen 27:34–35When Esau heard his father’s words, he let out a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, O my father!”
- 2 Sam 18:33The king was shaken and went up to the gate chamber and wept. And as he walked, he cried out, “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”
- Exod 24:17And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop in the eyes of the Israelites.
- Mark 5:38–39When they arrived at the house of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw the commotion and the people weeping and wailing loudly.
- Zech 12:10Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
- Gen 23:2She died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went out to mourn and to weep for her.
- Matt 11:17‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’
- John 11:11–13After He had said this, He told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.”
- Jer 9:17–21This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Take note, and summon the wailing women; send for the most skillful among them.
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 8:52 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.