MAT 5:7 Interlinear View

SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 5:1–7:29: Jesus preached a sermon on a mountain

For many years, English versions and Christians have commonly referred to Matthew 5–7 as “The Sermon on the Mount.” In some translations, it may be helpful to include a heading for chapters 5–7 that is on a level above the section heading for 5:1–12.

Here are some other possible headings for this section:

The Sermon on the Mountain

The sermon that Jesus preached on a mountain

Jesus taught people on the side of a mountain/hill

Paragraph 5:3–10

There are eight “blessings” in verses 3–10. Each of the eight blessings has two parts. Each blessing starts with the words “Blessed are” and tells what kind of person is blessed. Each blessing ends with the reason why that kind of person is blessed. Each blessing is a short statement like a proverb.

Some English versions begin a new section at 5:3. One possibility is to put a general heading like “The sermon on the mountain” at 5:1 and the heading of “God blesses his people” here.

5:7a

Blessed are the merciful,

Fortunate/Favored are the people who show mercy to others,
God will bless those who pity/love other people,
Those who are kind/compassionate to others are in a favorable position.

Blessed are: For help in translating the word Blessed, see the note at 5:3a.

the merciful: The phrase the merciful refers to people who have or show “mercy” or “pity” toward other people. Here “mercy” means:

to show compassion to those who suffer or are in physical need
to refrain from punishing someone for the wrong he has done

This phrase includes both compassionate feelings and compassionate actions.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

those who show mercy (GW)

those who are merciful to others (GNT)

the people who show pity/love/sympathy to other people

those who are kind to others

5:7b

for they will be shown mercy.

because mercy will be shown to them.
because God/he will pity/love them.
God will be kind/compassionate to them.

for: The Greek conjunction that the BSB translates as for introduces the reason that “the merciful” are blessed. They are blessed because they will receive mercy. For example:

because God will show mercy to them (NCV)

In some languages, no conjunction is necessary here. For example:

They will be treated mercifully. (GW)

In other languages, it will be more natural to put 5:7b before 5:7a. For example:

Those who are merciful will receive mercy, so they are blessed.

God will be merciful to those who are merciful to others, so they are blessed.

they will be shown mercy: The Greek verb that the BSB literally translates as will be shown mercy means that people who are merciful to others will receive mercy from God. He is the one who will show mercy to them. He will pity them and help them in their suffering and physical needs.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

because God will show mercy to them (NCV)

God will be merciful to them! (GNT)

God will show pity/love/sympathy to them

Here this phrase does not mean that if someone is merciful to people, those people will show mercy to him in return.

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: grammar-connect-logic-result

μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ ἐλεηθήσονται

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες ὅτι αὐτοί ἐλεηθήσονται)

If it would be more natural in your language, you could reverse the order of these clauses, since the second clause gives the reason for the result that the first clause describes. Alternate translation: [The merciful will obtain mercy, so they are blessed]

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / idiom

μακάριοι

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες ὅτι αὐτοί ἐλεηθήσονται)

See how you translated this phrase in [5:3](../05/03.md). Alternate translation: [God will bless] or [How good it is for]

Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / nominaladj

οἱ ἐλεήμονες

the merciful

Matthew is using the adjective merciful as a noun to mean merciful people. Your language may use adjectives in the same way. If not, you could translate this word with an equivalent phrase. Alternate translation: [merciful people]

Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / abstractnouns

αὐτοὶ ἐλεηθήσονται

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες ὅτι αὐτοί ἐλεηθήσονται)

If your language does not use an abstract noun for the idea of mercy, you could express the same idea in another way. Alternate translation: [God will act mercifully to them]

OET-LV English word order (‘Reverse’ interlinear)

Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.

Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.

OET interlinear MAT 5:7

SR Greek word order

Section 5:1–7:29: Jesus preached a sermon on a mountain

Paragraph 5:3–10

5:7a

5:7b

OET-LV English word order (‘Reverse’ interlinear)