Luke 8:52

And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(52) All wept, and bewailed her.—Better, all were weeping and bewailing her.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:41-56 Let us not complain of a crowd, and a throng, and a hurry, as long as we are in the way of our duty, and doing good; but otherwise every wise man will keep himself out of it as much as he can. And many a poor soul is healed, and helped, and saved by Christ, that is hidden in a crowd, and nobody notices it. This woman came trembling, yet her faith saved her. There may be trembling, where yet there is saving faith. Observe Christ's comfortable words to Jairus, Fear not, believe only, and thy daughter shall be made whole. No less hard was it not to grieve for the loss of an only child, than not to fear the continuance of that grief. But in perfect faith there is no fear; the more we fear, the less we believe. The hand of Christ's grace goes with the calls of his word, to make them effectual. Christ commanded to give her meat. As babes new born, so those newly raised from sin, desire spiritual food, that they may grow thereby.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See this passage explained in the notes at Matthew 9:18-26, and Mark 5:21-43.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

47. declared … before all—This, though a great trial to the shrinking modesty of the believing woman, was just what Christ wanted in dragging her forth, her public testimony to the facts of her case—both her disease, with her abortive efforts at a cure, and the instantaneous and perfect relief which her touch of the Great Healer had brought her.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 8:41"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Not only her relations and friends, and the servants of the house, but the mourning women, that were hired on this occasion, and employed for this purpose:

but he said, weep not; neither in show, as the mourning women did, nor in reality, as the friends of the deceased:

she is not dead, but sleepeth; See Gill on Matthew 9:24. See Gill on Mark 5:39.

Geneva Study Bible

And all wept, and {o} bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth.

(o) The word signifies to beat and strike, and is used in the mournings and lamentations that are at burials, at which times men used this type of behaviour.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

52. bewailed her] The word means that they were beating their breasts for her (Nahum 2:7). St Mark gives a graphic picture of the tumult, and loud cries, and wailings (alalai, the Egyptian wilweleh). Even the poorest were obliged to provide for a funeral two flute- players and one wailing woman. See Ecclesiastes 12:5; Jeremiah 9:17; Amos 5:16; 2 Chronicles 35:25. These public mourners were called sappedans.

52. she. is not dead, but sleepeth] To take this literally is to contradict the letter and spirit of the whole narrative. It is true that in “our friend Lazarus sleepeth” the verb used is not katheudein but koimasthai; but that is in a different writer (John 11:11), and the word better suits one who had been four days dead. Our Lord’s object was to silence this idle uproar.

Luke 8:52

Vincent's Word Studies

Wept and bewailed

Both imperfects, were weeping and bewailing. So, rightly, Rev. Compare on bewailing, Mark 5:38.