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OET (OET-LV) And see, a_woman hemorrhaging twelve years having_approached behind, she_touched against_the fringe of_the garment of_him.
OET (OET-RV) Just then a woman who had been bleeding internally for twelve years came up behind Yeshua and touched the edge of his robe
In this section, Matthew continued to write about the power that Jesus has to heal people. In addition, he again showed that faith is important.
There are two stories in this section. In one story Jesus healed a woman who had a bleeding problem for twelve years. This story is told in the middle of another story. In that story, he raised to life a girl who had recently died.
According to the law of Moses, a woman who had a bleeding problem was unclean. If a normal Jew came in contact with such a woman, he became impure. Also, according to the law of Moses, a dead body was unclean. If a normal Jew touched a dead body, he became unclean. But these two women did not contaminate Jesus. Instead, power went out from Jesus to heal the bleeding woman, and his supernatural power caused the girl to become alive again.
Here are some other possible headings for this section:
A Dead Girl and a Sick Woman (NIV)
A sick woman is healed and a dead girl lives again
Jesus Heals in Response to Faith (NLT)
There are parallel passages for this section in Mark 5:21–43 and Luke 8:40–56.
Suddenly a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years
¶ Just then, a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years
¶ There was a certain woman. She had been bleeding for twelve years. While Jesus was on his way she suddenly
¶ While they were walking along, a certain woman who had been bleeding for 12 years
Suddenly: The Greek word that the BSB translates as Suddenly indicates that something extraordinary will happen. Here, what is unexpected is that while they were going to the ruler’s house, a woman came and touched Jesus’ robe.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
And behold (ESV)
unexpectedly
Just then (NIV)
a woman: In some languages, it is necessary to introduce a new main participant in a certain way. In that case the woman should be introduced in a way that is natural in the language. For example:
There was a certain woman. She had a bleeding sickness for twelve years. While Jesus was on his way, she suddenly…
who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years: The Greek word that the BSB translates as suffered from bleeding is more literally “bleeding.” The word suffered is not in Greek.
The Greek does not indicate where the woman was bleeding from. She was probably bleeding from the womb at times that were not normal. For politeness sake, the Greek term is general. She had started bleeding twelve years prior to this time and probably bled most of the twelve years.
In some languages, there is a term for this kind of bleeding. In other languages, it is more natural to use a polite form (euphemism). Here is an example of each:
who had been bleeding for twelve years (CEV)
who had continual menstrual bleeding for twelve years
The clause “who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years” is information about the woman. In English, such information is often put in a relative clause, as it is here. In some languages, it may be more natural to give this information in a separate sentence. Notice how the following examples give the information about the woman:
Then a woman came up behind Jesus and touched the edge of his clothes. She had been suffering from chronic bleeding for twelve years. (GW)
There was a certain woman. She had been bleeding for twelve years. She approached Jesus from behind and touched the edge of his clothes.
came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak.
came close behind Jesus and touched one of the tassels on his coat.
approached him from the rear and touched the strings/threads on the edge of his robe.
approached Jesus from behind and touched the border/hem of his clothes.
came up behind Him: This expression indicates that the woman approached Jesus from behind. She had probably been following Jesus, and she walked quickly so she could get close enough to him to touch his clothes.
Here are some other ways to translate these words:
came close to him from the rear
approached him from behind (JBP)
Tassels on a Jewish man’s prayer shawl
touched the fringe of His cloak: The Greek word that the BSB translates as fringe probably refers to one of the “tassels” that were attached to Jesus’ clothes. The Jews made these tassels by tying strings together, and they attached these tassels to the four corners of their outer clothes. When they saw these tassels, they were supposed to remember to follow God’s commandments. (Num. 15:37–38; Deut. 22:12).
Like any male Jew, Jesus probably wore tassels. The woman probably touched this part of Jesus’ clothing so he would not feel the touch.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
Translate it with a word or phrase that refers specifically to tassels. For example:
touched the strings/threads on the hem of his clothes
Translate it with a word or phrase that refers generally to the hem or edge of his clothes. For example:
touched the edge of his clothes (GW)
touched the hem/border of his robe
cloak: The Greek word that the BSB translates as cloak is a general word that means clothing. In this context, this word refers to the outer layer of clothing.
Here are some other ways to translate this word:
garment (ESV)
clothes (CEV)
robe (NLT)
coat (NCV)
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor
ἰδοὺ
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Καί ἰδού γυνή αἱμορροοῦσα δώδεκα ἔτη προσελθοῦσα ὄπισθεν ἥψατο τοῦ κρασπέδου τοῦ ἱματίου αὐτοῦ)
The word behold draws the attention of the audience and asks them to listen carefully. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express behold with a word or phrase that asks the audience to listen, or you could draw the audience’s attention in another way. Alternate translation: [as it happened] or [suddenly]
Note 2 topic: writing-participants
γυνὴ αἱμορροοῦσα δώδεκα ἔτη προσελθοῦσα ὄπισθεν, ἥψατο
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Καί ἰδού γυνή αἱμορροοῦσα δώδεκα ἔτη προσελθοῦσα ὄπισθεν ἥψατο τοῦ κρασπέδου τοῦ ἱματίου αὐτοῦ)
Matthew introduces this woman as a new character in the story. Use a natural form in your language for introducing a new character. Alternate translation: [there was a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for 12 years. She approached Jesus from behind and touched]
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / euphemism
αἱμορροοῦσα
hemorrhaging
Matthew uses the phrase a discharge of blood to refer discreetly to her condition or illness. She was probably experiencing menstrual bleeding at many times, even when it was not the normal time for that to occur. If your language has a polite way of referring to this condition, you could use that expression here, or you could state the meaning plainly. Alternate translation: [suffering from abnormal menstruation] or [suffering from frequent menstrual bleeding]
Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / extrainfo
ἥψατο τοῦ κρασπέδου τοῦ ἱματίου αὐτοῦ
˱she˲_touched ˱against˲_the fringe ˱of˲_the garment ˱of˲_him
Matthew does not explain why she touched the edge of his cloak. Since Matthew does explain it in the next verse, you should not explain its meaning here.
9:20 The woman’s constant bleeding rendered her always ceremonially unclean and made whoever she touched unclean as well (Lev 15:25-30). But instead of rendering Jesus unclean, her touching him made her clean, a stunning reversal that illustrates Jesus’ power to redeem and sanctify (see Matt 14:36; Mark 3:10).
• fringe: The tassels at the bottom of a tunic (Matt 23:5; Num 15:37-41) reminded Jews to live in accord with God’s law.
OET (OET-LV) And see, a_woman hemorrhaging twelve years having_approached behind, she_touched against_the fringe of_the garment of_him.
OET (OET-RV) Just then a woman who had been bleeding internally for twelve years came up behind Yeshua and touched the edge of his robe
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.
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