11:19
and: The word and connects the fact that Jerusalem was near to the fact that many people came to comfort Martha and Mary. Because Jerusalem was near it was possible for people to come from there to comfort them. It may be natural to indicate this connection. For example:
so (NET Bible Bible)
many of the Jews: The phrase the Jews here refers to people who lived in Judea, the area where Bethany and Jerusalem were. The word does not just refer to Jesus’ opponents as it has before (including 11:8a). The mention of Jerusalem being near Bethany could imply that these Jews were from Jerusalem. Refer to these people in a way that is natural in your language. For example:
many of the people (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
many Judeans (Good News Translation)
-or-
many of the Jewish people of the region (NET Bible Bible)
-or-
many people had come from the city (Contemporary English Version)
had come to Martha and Mary: These people traveled from Jerusalem or the area to Bethany to see Lazarus’ sisters, Martha and Mary. It is likely that Martha was older than Mary and that is why her name is first.
to console them: The verb console refers to comforting someone who is mourning because a loved one died. These people came to mourn with the sisters and give them comfort and encouragement. Here are other ways to translate this phrase:
to offer them sympathy
in the loss of their brother: This phrase here means “about their brother Lazarus’ death.” In many languages it may be natural to indicate that their brother had died. For example:
about their brother’s death (Good News Translation)
-or-
over the loss of their brother (NET Bible Bible)
-or-
because their brother had died (Contemporary English Version)
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