Mark 5:39

39 And [when he] entered, he said to them, "Why are you agitated and weeping? The child is not dead, but is sleeping."

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 did not allow anyone to follow along with him except Peter and James and John, the brother of James.

38 And they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and saw a commotion, and [people] weeping and wailing loudly.

39 And [when he] entered, he said to them, "Why are you agitated and weeping? The child is not dead, but is sleeping."

40 And they began laughing at him. But he sent [them] all out [and] took along the father and mother of the child, and those [who were] with him, and went in to where the child was.

41 And taking hold of the child's hand, he said to her, "Talitha koum!" (which is translated, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!"),

Footnotes

• [a]. *Here "[when]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("entered") which is understood as temporal