SIL Translator’s Notes on Matthew 5:7

5:7a

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:

(a) to show compassion to those who suffer or are in physical need

(b) 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 (God’s Word)
-or-
those who are merciful to others (Good News Translation)
-or-
the people who show pity/love/sympathy to other people
-or-
those who are kind to others

5:7b

for: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible 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 (New Century Version)

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

They will be treated mercifully. (God’s Word)

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.
-or-

⌊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 Berean Standard Bible 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 (New Century Version)
-or-
God will be merciful to them! (Good News Translation)

-or-

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.

© 2023 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

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