New International Version
Matthew 5:43
43“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
Matthew 5:43 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
- English Standard Version (ESV)"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'
- New King James Version (NKJV)“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
- New Living Translation (NLT)“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy.
Context of Matthew 5:43
41If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Read all of Matthew 5Matthew 5:43 word by word
Ἠκούσατε ὅτι ἐρρέθη· ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου καὶ μισήσεις τὸν ἐχθρόν σου.Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
- ·ὁho hē to · the/this/whoG3588
- Ye have heardἀκούωakouō · to hearG191
- thatὅτιhoti · that/since: thatG3754
- it hath been saidἐρῶereō · to sayG2046
- Thou shalt loveἀγαπάωagapaō · to loveG25
- thyσύsu · youG4771
- neighbourπλησίονplēsion · near/neighborG4139
- andκαίkai · andG2532
- hateμισέωmiseō · to hateG3404
- enemyἐχθρόςechthros · enemyG2190
Cross-references for Matthew 5:43
- Matthew 19:19honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”
- Matthew 22:39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
- Leviticus 19:18“ ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
- Mark 12:31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
- Luke 10:27He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
- Romans 13:8Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.
- Galatians 5:13You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
- James 2:8If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.
- Exodus 17:14Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.”
- Deuteronomy 23:6Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them as long as you live.
- Deuteronomy 25:17Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt.
- Psalms 41:10But may you have mercy on me, Lord; raise me up, that I may repay them.
- Psalms 139:21Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
Commentaries on Matthew 5:43
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 43Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy - Instead of neighbor, the Codex Graevii, a MS. of the eleventh century, reads friend. Thou shalt love thy friend, and hate thine enemy. This was certainly the meaning which the Jews put on it: for neighbor, with them, implied those of the Jewish race, and all others were, considered by them as natural enemies. Besides, it is evident that , among the Hellenistic Jews, meant friend merely: Christ uses it…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 43Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy - The command to love our neighbor was a law of God, Leviticus 19:18. That we must therefore hate our enemy was an inference drawn from it by the Jews. They supposed that if we loved the one, we must of course hate the other. They were total strangers to that great, special law of religion which requires us to love both. A neighbor is literally one that lives near to…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 43-48Verses 43-48 The Jewish teachers by "neighbour" understood only those who were of their own country, nation, and religion, whom they were pleased to look upon as their friends. The Lord Jesus teaches that we must do all the real kindness we can to all, especially to their souls. We must pray for them. While many will render good for good, we must render good for evil; and this will speak a nobler principle than most men act by. Others salute their…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 43-47Hate your enemy: Jesus is not rejecting the Old Testament. Instead, he is correcting a traditional interpretation that was mistaken (see Exodus 23:4–5). The Old Testament never commands people to “hate your enemy.” The closest verses are in Psalm 139:21–22, where hatred is expressed toward God’s enemies.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 4343. Ye have heard that it hath been said--(Le 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…Read the comment
Topics related to Matthew 5:43
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Matthew 5
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Catena Aurea
- Illustrated New Testament
- Burkitt’s Expository Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Family Bible Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- John Lightfoot Commentary
- Luther’s Commentary on Selected Bible Passages
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- The People’s New Testament
- Robertson’s Word Pictures
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- The Fourfold Gospel and Commentary on Acts
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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