Matthew 5:43

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

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Word by word — the Greek

Word	Greek	Strong’s	Meaning
Ye have heard	Ἠκούσατε Ēkousate	G191	to hear (in various senses) · verb — aorist active indicative, 2nd person plural
that	ὅτι hoti	G3754	demonstrative · conjunction
it hath been said	ῥέω rhéō	G4483	to utter
Thou shalt love	ἀγαπήσεις agapēseis	G25	to love (in a social or moral sense) · verb — future active indicative, 2nd person singular
thy	σοῦ soû	G4675	of thee
neighbour	πλησίον plēsion	G4139	(adverbially) close by · adverb
and	καὶ kai	G2532	and · conjunction
hate	μισήσεις misēseis	G3404	to detest (especially to persecute) · verb — future active indicative, 2nd person singular
thine	σοῦ soû	G4675	of thee
enemy	ἐχθρόν echthron	G2190	hateful (passively · 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

Leviticus 19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.
Psalms 139:21-22 Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?
Galatians 5:13-14 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Matthew 19:19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Romans 13:8-10 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
Deuteronomy 23:6 Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days for ever.
Mark 12:31-34 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
James 2:8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:

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

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Matthew 5:43–end

We have here, lastly, an exposition of that great fundamental law of the second table, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, which was the fulfilling of the law. I. See here how this law was corrupted by the comments of the Jewish teachers, Mat 5:43. God said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour; and by neighbour they understood those only of their own country, nation, and religion; and those only that they were pleased to look upon as their friends: yet this was not the worst; from this command, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, they were willing to infer what God never designed; Thou shalt hate thine enemy; and they looked upon whom they pleased as their enemies, thus making void the great command of God…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Matthew 5:43

Ye have heard that it hath been said-- (Lev 19:18). Thou shalt love thy neighbour--To this the corrupt teachers added, and hate thine enemy--as if the one were a legitimate inference from the other, instead of being a detestable gloss, as BENGEL indignantly calls it. LIGHTFOOT quotes some of the cursed maxims inculcated by those traditionists regarding the proper treatment of all Gentiles. No wonder that the Romans charged the Jews with hatred of the human race.

John Gill on Matthew 5:43

Ye have heard that it hath been said,.... By, or to them of old time. This law has been delivered to them, thou shalt love thy neighbour, with this appendage to it, or false gloss upon it, and hate thine enemy; for the first of these only is the law of Moses, Leviticus 19:18, the other is the addition, or wrong interpretation of the Scribes and Pharisees: wherefore the Jew (o) has no reason to charge Christ, or the Evangelist, with a false testimony, as he does, because the latter is no where written in the law, nor in the prophets: nor does Christ say it is; he only observes, that it had been traditionally handed down to them from the ancients, by the masters of the traditions of the elde…

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John Calvin

The Church Fathers

He also said, 'Evil cannot drive out evil. If anyone hurts you, do good to him and your good will destroy his evil.'
— Desert Fathers, The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks

Whether, he says, it be a friend or an enemy, a believer or an unbeliever, do good to the person in need. Do not follow the Jewish law that focuses repayment primarily on friends. For this reason, when they were urging the Lord to heal the son of the royal officer, they said to him, "He is worthy to have you do this for him," because "he has even built us our synagogue."
— Theodore of Heraclea, FRAGMENT 38.37

(Serm. in Mont. i. 21.) That there were degrees in the righteousness of the Pharisees which was under the old Law is seen herein, that many hated even those by whom they were loved. He therefore who loves his neighbour, has ascended one degree, though as yet he hate his enemy; which is expressed in that, and shalt hate his enemy; which is not to be understood as a command to the justified, but a concession to the weak.
— Augustine of Hippo ((as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)), Catena Aurea by Aquinas

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

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…
Commandments · DISCOURSE — DISCOURSE
Enemy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Forgiveness · OF ENEMIES — OF ENEMIES
Hatred · 10:12,18;15:17;26:24-26; — 10:12,18;15:17;26:24-26;
Judaism · .To make room for the Gospel — .To make room for the Gospel
Meekness · His teaching — His teaching
Religion · TRUE — TRUE
Retaliation · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning

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).

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Matthew 5:43–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Matthew 5:43

John Gill on Matthew 5:43

John Calvin

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Matthew 5:43–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Matthew 5:43

John Gill on Matthew 5:43

John Calvin

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Matthew 5:43-47