Mark 5:39

39 He goes in. "Why all this outcry and loud weeping?" He asks; "the child is asleep, not dead."

Mark 5:39 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 5:39

And when he was come in
Into the house, within doors, into one of the apartments, and where the company of mourners, and the pipers, and mourning women were, singing and saying their doleful ditties:

he saith unto them, why make ye this ado and weep?
why all this tumult and noise? this grief and mourning, whether real or artificial?

the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth:
not but that she was truly dead, but not so as to remain under the power of death: she was like a person in a sleep, who would in a little time be awaked out of it: and which was as easily performed by Christ, as if she had been only in a natural sleep; (See Gill on Matthew 9:24).

Mark 5:39 In-Context

37 And He allowed no one to accompany Him except Peter and the brothers James and John.

38 So they come to the Warden's house. Here He gazes on a scene of uproar, with people weeping aloud and wailing.

39 He goes in. "Why all this outcry and loud weeping?" He asks; "the child is asleep, not dead."

40 To this their reply is a scornful laugh. He, however, puts them all out, takes the child's father and mother and those He has brought with Him, and enters the room where the child lies.

41 Then, taking her by the hand, He says to her, "Talitha, koum;" that is to say, "Little girl, I command you to wake!"