Matthew 24:31 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Matthew 24:31
And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
big (literally or figuratively · adjective — genitive singular feminine
sound
φωνήphōnḗ
G5456
a tone (articulate
of a trumpet
σάλπιγγοςsalpingos
G4536
a trumpet · noun — genitive singular feminine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
they shall gather together
ἐπισυνάξουσινepisunaxousin
G1996
to collect upon the same place · verb — future active indicative, 3rd person plural
his
αὐτοῦautou
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular masculine
elect
ἐκλεκτοὺςeklektous
G1588
select · adjective — accusative plural masculine
from
ἐκek
G1537
literal or figurative · preposition
the
ἀνέμων,anemōn
G417
wind · noun — genitive plural masculine
four
τεσσάρωνtessarōn
G5064
four · adjective — genitive plural masculine
winds
ἄνεμοςánemos
G417
wind
from
ἀπ᾽ap᾽
G575
"off · preposition
one end
ἄκρωνakrōn
G206
the extremity · noun — genitive plural neuter
of heaven
οὐρανῶνouranōn
G3772
the sky · noun — genitive plural masculine
to
ἕωςhe'ōs
G2193
a conjunction · preposition
the other
ἄκρωνakrōn
G206
the extremity · noun — genitive plural neuter
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Chr…
Mark 13:27 And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the utte…
Isaiah 27:13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of…
1 Corinthians 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we…
Isaiah 11:12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from th…
Matthew 13:41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
2 Thessalonians 2:1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
Psalms 22:27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
John Gill on Matthew 24:31
And he shall send his angels,.... Not the angels, i.e. ministering spirits, so called, not from their nature, but their office, as being sent forth by God and Christ; but men angels, or messengers, the ministers and preachers of the Gospel, whom Christ would call, qualify, and send forth into all the world of the Gentiles, to preach his Gospel, and plant churches there still more, when that at Jerusalem was broken up and dissolved. These are called "angels", because of their mission, and commission from Christ, to preach the Gospel; and because of their knowledge and understanding in spiritual things; and because of their zeal, diligence, and watchfulness,
With a great sound of a trumpet, m…
Matthew 24:29-31
Matthew 24:29-31
Mark 13:24-27
Luke 21:25-28
29. And immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken. 30. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory. 31. And he shall send his angels with a loud sound of a trumpet; and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one extremity of heaven to the other.
24. But in those days, after that tribulation, shall t…
Many believe that the rapture of God’s people through angels (13:41; 16:27; 25:31) is predicted here. Others believe that angels (Greek angeloi, “messengers”) here are human messengers (11:10; Luke 7:24; 9:52; Jas 2:25) and that Jesus is describing the expansion of the Good News among Gentiles (see Matt 21:33-46; 22:1-14; Deut 30:1-10; Isa 27:13; Zech 2:6-13).
(Ver. 31.) And He will send His angels with a trumpet and a loud voice; and they will gather His chosen ones from the four winds, from the highest heavens to their ends. The Apostle speaks of this trumpet in I Corinthians XV; I Thessalonians IV: and we read in the Apocalypse of John (Apocalypse VIII): and in the Old Testament (Numbers X), we are instructed to make trumpets of gold, silver, and bronze, so that the lofty mysteries of doctrine may resound.
By saying that the Son of man will send his angels, he demonstrates that the Son of man is God. For they are God's angels, and to send them is solely God's prerogative. The saying "from one end of the heavens to the other" teaches us that the extremes of earth and heaven are the same. Hence it is necessary to believe in Christ and not to be deceived as though the smallest part of earth, situated in the midst of the heavens, was surpassed by their infinite greatness.
Here we are not to think of a real trumpet, but of the voice of the archangel, which shall be so loud that at its sound all the dead shall rise out of the dust of the earth. That is, from the four quarters of the world, north, south, east, and west. Or otherwise; Lest any one should suppose that they should be gathered only from the four quarters of the world, and not from the middle regions, The adds this, And from one end of heaven to the other. By the heights of heaven meaning the central regions of the earth, which are under the heights of heaven; and by the ends of heaven, meaning the extreme parts of the earth, where the land seems to join a very wide and distant horizon.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Angel — A word signifying, both in the Hebrew and Greek, a “messenger,” and hence employed to denote any agent God sends forth to execute his purposes. It is used of an ordinary messenger (Job 1:14: 1 Sam.…
Angels — By the word “angels” (i.e. “messengers” of God) we ordinarily understand a race of spiritual beings of a nature exalted far above that of man, although infinitely removed from that of God—whose…
Matthew, Gospel according to — The author of this book was beyond a doubt the Matthew, an apostle of our Lord, whose name it bears. He wrote the Gospel of Christ according to his own plans and aims, and from his own point of view,…
Olves, Mount of — So called from the olive trees with which its sides are clothed, is a mountain ridge on the east of Jerusalem (1 Kings 11:7; Ezek. 11:23; Zech. 14:4), from which it is separated by the valley of…
Winds — Blowing from the four quarters of heaven (Jer. 49:36; Ezek. 37:9; Dan. 8:8; Zech. 2:6). The east wind was parching (Ezek. 17:10; 19:12), and is sometimes mentioned as simply denoting a strong wind…
Angels · Shall execute the purposes of Christ — Shall execute the purposes of Christ
Christ, The Prophet · Foretold things to come — Foretold things to come
Resurrection · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Second Coming Of Christ, The · Signs preceding — Signs preceding
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
