Mark 5:26

And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(26) Was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse.—The fact is the same as in St. Luke 8:43, who, however, does not mention that she grew worse, but it is, as usual, expressed more graphically.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:21-34 A despised gospel will go where it will be better received. One of the rulers of a synagogue earnestly besought Christ for a little daughter, about twelve years old, who was dying. Another cure was wrought by the way. We should do good, not only when in the house, but when we walk by the way, De 6:7. It is common with people not to apply to Christ till they have tried in vain all other helpers, and find them, as certainly they will, physicians of no value. Some run to diversions and gay company; others plunge into business, or even into intemperance; others go about to establish their own righteousness, or torment themselves by vain superstitions. Many perish in these ways; but none will ever find rest to the soul by such devices; while those whom Christ heals of the disease of sin, find in themselves an entire change for the better. As secret acts of sin, so secret acts of faith, are known to the Lord Jesus. The woman told all the truth. It is the will of Christ that his people should be comforted, and he has power to command comfort to troubled spirits. The more simply we depend on Him, and expect great things from him, the more we shall find in ourselves that he is become our salvation. Those who, by faith, are healed of their spiritual diseases, have reason to go in peace.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Had suffered many things - Had resorted to many things painful, by the direction of the physicians, in order to be healed.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

26. And had suffered many things of many physicians—The expression perhaps does not necessarily refer to the suffering she endured under medical treatment, but to the much varied treatment which she underwent.

and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse—pitiable case, and affectingly aggravated; emblem of our natural state as fallen creatures (Eze 16:5, 6), and illustrating the worse than vanity of all human remedies for spiritual maladies (Ho 5:13). The higher design of all our Lord's miracles of healing irresistibly suggests this way of viewing the present case, the propriety of which will still more appear as we proceed.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Mark 5:25"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And had suffered many things of many physicians,.... She took many a nauseous medicine, and had gone through courses of physic with different physicians; for there were many among the Jews that pretended to the cure of fluxes; and various are the prescriptions the Jewish doctors give for such a disorder, as may be seen in their Talmud (q); and many of which Dr. Lightfoot (r) has transcribed: and among the rest, they direct to the use of gum of Alexandria, alum, saffron, Persian onions, cummin, and "faenum graecum", put into wine and drank.

And had spent all that she had; had wasted her substance, and brought herself to poverty, by pursuing the directions given her; so that she was not in circumstances now to employ a physician;

and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse: the several medicines she had taken had done her no good, had not, in the least, restrained and checked the disorder, but it was rather increased thereby. This is often the case of persons who are, in some measure, sensible of the disease of sin, but are ignorant of the proper methods to be taken for the cure of it. They apply to their own works of righteousness, moral and civil, to the duties of religion, private and public, to a legal repentance, external humiliation and tears, and an outward reformation of life, hoping hereby, in process of time, to be rid of their disorder, and be in good health; whereas these are physicians of no value, and of no real service in their case: they are so far from being the better, that they are rather worse and worse, there being so much impurity, imperfection, and sin, in all these things, and which is increased by a dependence on them; that their iniquities grow upon them, and the score of their transgressions is become greater, and their distemper the more inveterate, and less easy to be cured; yea, not only they spend their money for that which does not bring them a cure, and exhaust all the stock of nature's power to no purpose, but they also suffer much hereby. For such a course of action, such conduct and methods as these bring them into a spirit of bondage; for when they fail in their duties, do not come up to the rules prescribed them, what terror of mind possesses them! what horror and wrath does the law work in their consciences! what a fearful looking for is there of fiery indignation, to consume them! It cannot be expressed what some have suffered by following such prescriptions.

(q) T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 110. 1, 2.((r) Hor. Heb. in loc.

Geneva Study Bible

And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Mark 5:26. Details about the case, similarly in Lk., not in Mt.: either they expand or Mt. abbreviates.—πολλὰ παθοῦσα: no wonder, remarks Lightfoot, in view of the endless prescriptions for such a case, of which he gives samples (Hor. Heb.); physicians of the empiric or prescientific type.—τὰ παρʼ αὐτῆς, her means, cf. οἱ παρʼ αὐτοῦ, Mark 3:21.—μηδὲν ὠφελ: nothing profited, the subjective negative, μηδὲν, implies disappointed expectation.

Mark 5:26

Vincent's Word Studies

Mark is much fuller and more vivid than Matthew or Luke.

Had suffered (παθοῦσα)

To be taken, as everywhere in the New Testament, in the sense of suffering pain, not merely subjected to treatment. What she may have suffered will appear from the prescription for the medical treatment of such a complaint given in the Talmud. "Take of the gum of Alexandria the weight of a zuzee (a fractional silver coin); of alum the same; of crocus the same. Let them be bruised together, and given in wine to the woman that has an issue of blood. If this does not benefit, take of Persian onions three logs (pints); boil them in wine, and give her to drink, and say, 'Arise from thy flux.' If this does not cure her, set her in a place where two ways meet, and let her hold a cup of wine in her right hand, and let some one come behind and frighten her, and say, ' Arise from thy flux.' But if that do no good, take a handful of cummin (a kind of fennel), a handful of crocus, and a handful of fenugreek (another kind of fennel). Let these be boiled in wine and give them her to drink, and say, ' Arise from thy flux !'" If these do no good, other doses, over ten in number, are prescribed, among them this: "Let them dig seven ditches, in which let them burn some cuttings of vines, not yet four years old. Let her take in her hand a cup of wine, and let them lead her away from this ditch, and make her sit down over that. And let them remove her from that, and make her sit down over another, saying to her at each remove, 'Arise from thy flux!'" (Quoted from Lightfoot by Geikie, "Life and Words of Christ").

Of many physicians (ὑπὸ)

Lit., under; i.e., under the hands of.

And was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse

Luke's professional pride as a physician kept him from such a statement. Compare Luke 8:43.