Matthew 5:26

Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.

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Word by word — the Greek

Word	Greek	Strong’s	Meaning
Verily	ἀμὴν amēn	G281	properly · interjection — Hebrew
I say	λέγω legō	G3004	properly · verb — present active indicative, 1st person singular
unto thee	σοί soí	G4671	to thee
by no	οὐ ou	G3756	the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverb · particle — negative
means	μὴ mē	G3361	(adverb) not · particle — negative
come out	ἐξέλθῃς exelthēs	G1831	to issue (literally or figuratively) · verb — second aorist active subjunctive, 2nd person singular
thence	ἐκεῖθεν ekeithen	G1564	thence · adverb
till	ἕως he'ōs	G2193	a conjunction · preposition
thou hast paid	ἀποδῷς apodōs	G591	to give away · verb — second aorist active subjunctive, 2nd person singular
the uttermost	ἔσχατον eschaton	G2078	farthest · adjective — accusative singular masculine
farthing	κοδράντην.¶ kodrantēn	G2835	a quadrans · noun — accusative singular masculine

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

Matthew 18:34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
Luke 12:59 I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite.
2 Thessalonians 1:9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
James 2:13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.
Matthew 25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
Matthew 25:46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
Luke 16:26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can the…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Matthew 5:21-26

Christ having laid down these principles, that Moses and the prophets were still to be their rulers, but that the scribes and Pharisees were to be no longer their rulers, proceeds to expound the law in some particular instances, and to vindicate it from the corrupt glosses which those expositors had put upon it. He adds not any thing new, only limits and restrains some permissions which had been abused: and as to the precepts, shows the breadth, strictness, and spiritual nature of them, adding such explanatory statutes as made them more clear, and tended much toward the perfecting of our obedience to them. In these verses, he explains the law of the sixth commandment, according to the true i…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Matthew 5:26

Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, fill thou hast paid the uttermost farthing--a fractional Roman coin, to which our "farthing" answers sufficiently well. That our Lord meant here merely to give a piece of prudential advice to his hearers, to keep out of the hands of the law and its officials by settling all disputes with one another privately, is not for a moment to be supposed, though there are critics of a school low enough to suggest this. The concluding words--"Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out," &c.--manifestly show that though the language is drawn from human disputes and legal procedure, He is dealing with a higher than any human qua…

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John Gill on Matthew 5:26

Verily, I say unto thee,.... This may be depended upon, you may assure yourself of it, that thou shalt by no means come out thence, from prison, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing, or "last farthing"; or as the Ethiopic version reads it, "till thou hast exactly paid all"; which seems to express the inexorableness of the creditor, and the impossibility of the debtor's release.

John Calvin on Matthew 5:23-26

The Church Fathers

Moreover, as often as the soul has fallen short as a defaulter in sin, it has to be recalled to existence, until it "pays the utmost farthing," thrust out from time to time into the prison of the body.
— Tertullian, A Treatise on the Soul

For who is there that will not desire, while he is in the flesh, to put on immortality, and to continue his life by a happy escape from death, through the transformation which must be experienced instead of it, without encountering too that Hades which will exact the very last farthing? Notwithstanding, he who has already traversed Hades is destined also to obtain the change after the resurrection.
— Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh

But if we have in fact transgressed anything of what we promised to the devil, we will be handed over to the judge and the officer, and we will be thrown into prison, and we will not be released from it until we repay the last quarter. A quarter is a type of coin that has two minutes. Hence, in another Gospel, that poor and widowed woman is said to have sent a quarter into the treasury (Mark 12), and in another, two minutes (Luke 21). Not that the Gospels are in disagreement, but that one quarter has two minute coins. This is therefore what he is saying: You will not leave the prison until you have paid even the smallest sins.
— Jerome, Commentary on Matthew

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

Farthing — (1.) Matt. 10:29; Luke 12:6. Greek assarion, i.e., a small as, which was a Roman coin equal to a tenth of a denarius or drachma, nearly equal to a halfpenny of our money. (2.) Matt. 5:26; Mark 12:42…
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,…
Sermon on the mount — After spending a night in solemn meditation and prayer in the lonely mountain-range to the west of the Lake of Galilee (Luke 6:12), on the following morning our Lord called to him his disciples, and…
Compromise · BEFORE LITIGATION, ENJOINED — BEFORE LITIGATION, ENJOINED
Creditor · OPPRESSIONS OF — OPPRESSIONS OF
Creditors · Often exacted debts: By imprisonment — Often exacted debts: By imprisonment
Debtor · LAWS CONCERNING — LAWS CONCERNING
Farthing · a cent; in English money, less than a farthing — a cent; in English money, less than a farthing
Imprisonment · Of — Of
Judaism · .To make room for the Gospel — .To make room for the Gospel
Lawsuits · To be avoi — To be avoi
Money · Pieces of mentioned: Farthing — Pieces of mentioned: Farthing

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Matthew 5:21-26

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Matthew 5:26

John Gill on Matthew 5:26

John Calvin on Matthew 5:23-26

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Matthew 5:21-26

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Matthew 5:26

John Gill on Matthew 5:26

John Calvin on Matthew 5:23-26

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Matthew 5:23-26