Matthew 5

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

The Sermon on the Mount: the Beatitudes

¹ And seeing the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and when He was seated, His disciples came to Him. ² Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:

³ "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. ⁵ Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. ⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. ⁷ Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy. ⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see Elohim. ⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of Elohim. ¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ¹¹ Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. ¹² Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Salt and light

¹³ "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. ¹⁴ You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. ¹⁶ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Not to destroy but to fulfill

¹⁷ "Do not think that I came to destroy the Torah or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. ¹⁸ For amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle will pass from the Torah until all things take place. ¹⁹ Whoever then breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰ For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

The Torah filled full

²¹ "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder,' and 'Whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' ²² But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause will be liable to judgment; and whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' will be liable to the Sanhedrin; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the Gehenna of fire. ²³ Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, ²⁴ leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. ²⁵ Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. ²⁶ Amen, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.

²⁷ "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' ²⁸ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹ If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into Gehenna. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into Gehenna.

³¹ "Furthermore it has been said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' ³² But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.

³³ "Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.' ³⁴ But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is the throne of Elohim; ³⁵ nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. ³⁶ Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. ³⁷ But let your word be 'Yes, yes,' 'No, no.' For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.

³⁸ "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' ³⁹ But I say to you not to resist the evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. ⁴⁰ If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. ⁴¹ And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. ⁴² Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.

⁴³ "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' ⁴⁴ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷ And if you greet your friends only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? ⁴⁸ Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.

Notes

• 5:3 "Blessed" (makarios) answers to the Hebrew ashrei, "blessed, happy," as in the first words of the Psalms, "Blessed is the man" (Psalm 1:1). The "poor in spirit" are the humble who know their need, like "him who is contrite and lowly in spirit," with whom Yahweh dwells (Isaiah 57:15), and several Beatitudes echo Scripture: "those who mourn" (Isaiah 61:2-3), "the meek shall inherit the land" (Psalm 37:11), where the Hebrew erets, like the Greek gē, means both "land" and "earth."
• 5:17 "Destroy" is kataluō, "tear down, abolish," and its opposite in the same verse is plēroō, "fill, fulfill." To fulfill the Torah is to carry it out and fill it with its full meaning, as Yeshua goes on to show in verses 21-48, and verses 18-19 make plain that fulfilling does not mean ending. "The Torah or the Prophets" is a common way of naming the Scriptures of Israel (compare 7:12; 22:40).
• 5:18 "Amen" is a Hebrew word meaning "it is sure." Others said it after a prayer or a statement, but Yeshua said it before His own words, and the Greek keeps the Hebrew word. The "jot" is the iota, the smallest Greek letter, standing for the Hebrew yod, the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet; the "tittle" (keraia, "little horn") is a tiny stroke that tells one Hebrew letter from another.
• 5:22 "Without a cause" is the reading of the Majority Text, which the TRB follows; many modern Bibles, following other manuscripts, leave it out. Raca is an Aramaic insult, "empty one, empty-headed." The Sanhedrin was the high council in Jerusalem. Gehenna is the Valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem, where children had been burned in the fire to idols (Jeremiah 7:31); by the first century its name had come to stand for the place of final judgment.
• 5:32 The Torah allowed a man to divorce his wife "because he has found some indecency in her" (Deuteronomy 24:1), and in the first century the schools of Shammai and Hillel debated what that meant: Shammai's school held it meant sexual immorality, while Hillel's allowed divorce for almost any cause (Mishnah Gittin 9:10, written down about AD 200). Yeshua's "except sexual immorality" (porneia) stands close to the stricter reading.
• 5:43 "Hate your enemy" is not written in the Torah, which says, "you shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18), and commands a man to bring back even his enemy's straying ox or donkey (Exodus 23:4); it seems to have been a saying that people had added. The Dead Sea community, for example, taught its members to hate "the sons of darkness" (Community Rule, column 1). In verses 44 and 47 the TRB follows the Majority Text, with the longer wording of verse 44 and "friends" and "tax collectors" in verse 47; many modern Bibles have a shorter verse 44 and read "brothers" and "Gentiles" in verse 47.

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