Mark 5:39

39 and having gone in he saith to them, `Why do ye make a tumult, and weep? the child did not die, but doth sleep;

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 suffer any one to follow with him, except Peter, and James, and John the brother of James;

38 and he cometh to the house of the chief of the synagogue, and seeth a tumult, much weeping and wailing;

39 and having gone in he saith to them, `Why do ye make a tumult, and weep? the child did not die, but doth sleep;

40 and they were laughing at him. And he, having put all forth, doth take the father of the child, and the mother, and those with him, and goeth in where the child is lying,

41 and, having taken the hand of the child, he saith to her, `Talitha cumi;' which is, being interpreted, `Damsel (I say to thee), arise.'