The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew12:15–21

God’s Chosen Servant

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Matthew 12:15–21 — God’s Chosen Servant. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

15

Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. Large crowds followed Him, and He healed them all,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

gnous de Ho Iēsous anechōrēsen ekeithen kai polloi ochloi ēkolouthēsan autō kai etherapeusen autous pantas

Word by word15 · parsed
γνοὺςgnousAware of thisG1097
√ γινώσκω — to "know" (absolutely) in a great variety of applications and with many implications (as follow, with others not thus clearly expressed)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ginōskō: to know, come to know Aorist participle, antecedent in time to the main verb: the knowing is finished before the withdrawing begins. Matthew does not say how he knew. Pulpit leaves it open ("Whether by his own unaided powers, or by intelligence brought him, is not stated"); Gill closes it toward omniscience. The text itself is restrained, and the restraint is part of the portrait about to be quoted from Isaiah.
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἀνεχώρησενanechōrēsenwithdrewG402
√ ἀναχωρέω — to retireVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
anachōreō: to retire, withdraw The verb of strategic retreat. Barnes and Poole agree on the motive: "his hour was not yet come." Pulpit adds the political reading, that he withdrew partly to avoid the crowd's impulse to make him king (John 6:15, where the same withdrawal language appears). Retreat, here, is not weakness but the Servant's refusal to force the hour.
ἐκεῖθενekeithenfrom that placeG1564
√ ἐκεῖθεν — thenceAdverb
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πολλοίpolloiLargeG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
ὄχλοιochloicrowdsG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounNominative Masculine Plural
ἠκολούθησανēkolouthēsanfollowedG190
√ ἀκολουθέω — properly, to be in the same way with, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
akoloutheō: to follow, be in the same way with The crowds follow the one who is walking away from confrontation. Matthew has just described the Pharisees taking counsel (12:14); the two verbs of the paragraph, counsel against and follow after, divide Israel in half around a man who is doing neither.
αὐτῷautōHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐθεράπευσενetherapeusenHe healedG2323
√ θεραπεύω — to wait upon menially, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
therapeuō: to serve, to heal Aorist indicative, one comprehensive act. Ellicott carefully bounds the "all": "all that had need of healing, and fulfilled its conditions." Gill hears the sabbath argument of 12:1-14 still running: Jesus practises "agreeably to his doctrine, that it was lawful to do good on the sabbath day."
αὐτοὺςautousthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
πάνταςpantasallG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
Accusative plural pantas, attached to the persons healed rather than to the diseases: the totality is of people, not of ailments.
16

warning them not to make Him known.

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Greek — tap a word ↓

kai epetimēsen autois hina mē poiēsōsin auton phaneron

Word by word8 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐπετίμησενepetimēsenwarningG2008
√ ἐπιτιμάω — to tax upon, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
epitimaō: to censure, charge sternly Aorist indicative. The severity matters for the argument Matthew is building: the same mouth that will not wrangle in the street (v. 19) speaks a threatening charge to silence acclaim. Meekness in this Gospel is not mildness of temperament but refusal of self-display. Ellicott reads the generalised form of the command as pointing away from the usual pastoral motive toward this one: the hour had not come.
αὐτοῖςautoisthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
Dative plural: those charged are the healed (JFB), and Gill allows that Mark's parallel extends it to the unclean spirits as well, so that neither the grateful nor the demonic may advertise him.
ἵναhinaG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
μὴmēnotG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
The negative particle of the purpose clause; with hina it forms the standing formula of the Markan and Matthean silencings.
ποιήσωσινpoiēsōsinto makeG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
αὐτὸνautonHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
φανερὸνphaneronknownG5318
√ φανερός — shining, iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
phaneros: shining, manifest The word for open visibility. Pulpit puts the principle plainly: "Publicity as such was rather hindering to his work than otherwise." The Servant who will be the hope of nations (v. 21) begins by suppressing his own publicity, and Matthew treats that suppression as itself the fulfilment of prophecy.
17

This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

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Greek — tap a word ↓

hina plērōthē to rhēthen dia tou prophētou Ēsaiou legontos

Word by word9 · parsed
ἵναhinaThis wasG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
hina introducing the fulfilment formula, not a final clause of Jesus' intent. Matthew's formula quotations attach purpose to the event, not to the actor's motive.
πληρωθῇplērōthēto fulfillG4137
√ πληρόω — to make replete, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Passive3rd Person Singular
plēroō: to fill full, fulfil The verb does not mean merely "come true." It means the prophetic word is filled up to its measure by this conduct: a retreat, a healing, a charge to keep silent. Matthew's boldest claim in this unit is that the fulfilment of Isaiah 42 looks like a man leaving town quietly. Benson: the evangelist here assigns the reason "why the Lord Jesus prosecuted his ministry in this humble, meek, quiet, and unostentatious way."
τὸtowhatG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Singular
ῥηθὲνrhēthenwas spokenG2046
√ ἐρέω — an alternate for G2036 (ἔπω) in certain tensesVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Neuter Singular
ereō: to speak, say Divine passive. The whole weight of the sentence falls on an unnamed speaker.
διὰdiathroughG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
προφήτουprophētouprophetG4396
√ προφήτης — a foreteller ("prophet")NounGenitive Masculine Singular
prophētēs: a foreteller Genitive after dia: the prophet as instrument.
ἨσαΐουĒsaiouIsaiahG2268
√ Ἡσαΐας — Hesaias (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Isaiah is named, which is why the citation's looseness is discussed openly by the commentators rather than hidden. Cambridge: "The original is not accurately followed; the words are probably quoted from memory." Ellicott and Pulpit agree it follows the Hebrew rather than the Septuagint, and paraphrases it.
λέγοντοςlegontosG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveGenitive Masculine Singular
18

“Here is My Servant, whom I have chosen, My beloved, in whom My soul delights. I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will proclaim justice to the nations.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Idou mou ho pais hon hēretisa mou ho agapētos eis hon mou hē psychē eudokēsen thēsō mou to Pneuma ep’ auton kai apangelei krisin tois ethnesin

Word by word26 · parsed
ἸδοὺIdouHere isG2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
idou: behold Formally an aorist imperative, a summons to look. The quotation opens by pointing at someone, and Matthew has just shown us a man walking out of town.
μουmouMyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
παῖςpaisServantG3816
√ παῖς — a boy (as often beaten with impunity), or (by analogy), a girl, and (genitive case) a childNounNominative Masculine Singular
pais: servant, child The Septuagint's standard rendering of Isaiah's ʿebed, and also the ordinary word for a boy. Poole and Gill both route it through Philippians 2:7, the form of a servant. Cambridge supplies the corporate background: "Israel as a nation is called the servant of Jehovah, Isaiah 41:8. Here the same title is given to Jesus, as the representative of the nation." Pulpit calls him the Ideal Israelite. Held together, the title says this one man is doing what the nation was chosen to do and did not.
ὃνhonwhomG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Masculine Singular
ᾑρέτισαhēretisaI have chosenG140
√ αἱρετίζω — to make a choiceVerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Singular
hairetizō: to make a choice A rare verb, used here of God's election of the Servant. Poole observes that Matthew has dropped Isaiah's "whom I uphold" and rendered "mine elect" as "whom I have chosen," then links the Servant's election to ours: "hence we are said to be chosen in him, Ephesians 1:4." The choice of the Head is the ground of the choice of the members.
μουmouMyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἀγαπητόςagapētosbelovedG27
√ ἀγαπητός — belovedAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
agapētos: beloved With eudokeō in the same clause, this pair reproduces the words of the voice at the Jordan (Matthew 3:17) and on the mountain (Matthew 17:5). The Verifier confirms both lexemes are shared with those verses. Ellicott makes the connection explicit: the baptismal words are "almost verbally identical with those of the prophecy now cited."
εἰςeisinG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
ὃνhonwhomG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Masculine Singular
μουmouMyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
ἡhēG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
ψυχήpsychēsoulG5590
√ ψυχή — breath, iNounNominative Feminine Singular
psychē: breath, soul, life A Hebraism: "my soul" is God's own self, said with feeling. The Father's pleasure is not a verdict passed from a distance.
εὐδόκησενeudokēsendelightsG2106
√ εὐδοκέω — to think well of, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
θήσωthēsōI will putG5087
√ τίθημι — to place (in the widest application, literally and figurativelyVerbFuture Indicative Active1st Person Singular
tithēmi: to place, set Future indicative. In the quotation the Spirit is still to be given; in Matthew's narrative it has already descended at the baptism, which is why Ellicott says the promise "had then received its fulfilment."
μουmouMyG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Singular
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
ΠνεῦμάPneumaSpiritG4151
√ πνεῦμα — a current of air, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
pneuma: breath, wind, Spirit Accusative, the thing placed. Gill takes the anointing as equipping for the preaching in particular, "of which the descent of the Holy Spirit upon him, as a dove at his baptism, which immediately preceded his public ministry, was a symbol." The Spirit is the link between the silence of vv. 15-16 and the proclamation of this line.
ἐπ’ep’onG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
αὐτόνautonHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀπαγγελεῖapangeleiHe will proclaimG518
√ ἀπαγγέλλω — to announceVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
apangellō: to announce, report back Future. The Servant who forbids announcement about himself (v. 16) will himself announce. The two silences are not the same silence.
κρίσινkrisinjusticeG2920
√ κρίσις — decision (subjectively or objectively, for or against)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
krisis: decision, judgment The load-bearing noun of the quotation: it returns in v. 20 as the thing carried through to victory. Pulpit warns that the thought "is not of Christ's power to punish and avenge (though he refused to use it as yet), but of his bringing a revelation." Geneva glosses it as a godly kingdom proclaimed among the nations. Whatever else it is, it is something announced, not something executed here.
τοῖςtoisto theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Plural
ἔθνεσινethnesinnationsG1484
√ ἔθνος — a race (as of the same habit), iNounDative Neuter Plural
ethnos: a race, nation, the Gentiles Dative plural, the indirect object of the announcing. Barnes and Gill both find the first instalment in the crowds from Idumea, Tyre and Sidon reported by Mark 3:7-8.
19

He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear His voice in the streets.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

ouk erisei oude kraugasei oude tis akousei autou tēn phōnēn en tais plateiais

Word by word13 · parsed
οὐκoukvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ἐρίσειeriseiHe will not quarrelG2051
√ ἐρίζω — to wrangleVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
erizō: to wrangle, contend Future indicative. Pulpit traces the word back through the Hebrew and the Syriac: Isaiah's clause is "He shall not cry aloud nor lift up his voice," and "strive" fairly renders a common connotation of crying aloud, since in Eastern disputation the raised voice is the quarrel. Matthew's choice is therefore interpretive, and the commentators say so openly.
οὐδὲoudeorG3761
√ οὐδέ — not however, iConjunction
κραυγάσειkraugaseicry outG2905
√ κραυγάζω — to clamorVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
kraugazō: to clamor Ellicott sets the contrast historically: this calm "stood out in marked contrast to the wrangling of Jewish scribes, the violence of Roman officers," and to revolutionaries like Judas of Galilee. The line is a political portrait as much as a temperamental one.
οὐδὲoudenoG3761
√ οὐδέ — not however, iConjunction
τιςtisoneG5100
√ τὶς — some or any person or objectInterrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἀκούσειakouseiwill hearG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
Future of akouō with the indefinite tis: the negation is of anyone at all hearing, which is stronger than a statement about how loudly he spoke. Gill explicitly denies the literalist reading, that his voice was simply quiet, and takes it of "his modest mien and suitable deportment."
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
φωνὴνphōnēnvoiceG5456
√ φωνή — a tone (articulate, bestial or artificial)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
phōnē: a tone, voice The same noun that the Father's voice bears at the baptism. Here the Son's voice is the one not heard in the square, while the Father's is the one heard from heaven.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ταῖςtaistheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Plural
πλατείαιςplateiaisstreetsG4113
√ πλατεῖα — a wide "plat" or "place", iNounDative Feminine Plural
plateia: a broad place, open square The public space of proclamation, and by implication of self-promotion. Poole reads the refusal concretely: not "setting a trumpet to his mouth, when he had wrought a miracle," which is precisely what v. 16 forbade the healed to do for him.
20

A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish, till He leads justice to victory.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

syntetrimmenon kalamon ou kateaxei kai typhomenon linon ou sbesei heōs an ekbalē tēn krisin eis nikos

Word by word16 · parsed
συντετριμμένονsyntetrimmenonA bruisedG4937
√ συντρίβω — to crush completely, iVerbPerfect Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Masculine Singular
syntribō: to crush completely Perfect passive: a standing ruin. The commentators divide on the referent and the brief preserves the division. Gill catalogues the options and settles on "young converts, such as are under first awakenings"; Barnes takes it of the poor and oppressed and of the contrite soul; Cambridge of "the failing lives which Jesus restores." What none of them makes it mean is a person of small importance. The reed is a person already broken.
κάλαμονkalamonreedG2563
√ κάλαμος — a reed (the plant or its stem, or that of a similar plant)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
kalamos: a reed Matthew has already used the reed as the image of what is shaken by the wind (Matthew 11:7), and Barnes reads that resonance here: the reed is feebleness and instability together.
οὐouvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
κατεάξειkateaxeiHe will not breakG2608
√ κατάγνυμι — to rend in pieces, iVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
katagnymi: to snap, rend in pieces Future indicative under the negative. The Verifier finds this rare verb (4 verses in the New Testament) in only one other passage, and all three of those verses are the breaking of legs at Golgotha (John 19:31-33). The one who will not snap a crushed reed is the one whose own bones are not snapped.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τυφόμενονtyphomenona smolderingG5188
√ τύφω — to make a smoke, iVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Neuter Singular
typhō: to make smoke Present participle, the ongoing dying of a flame. Ellicott reads it as a parable of the soul whose light has grown dim, and contrasts the Pharisee who "simply gave thanks that his own lamp was burning." Gill's Targum citation is the ancient Jewish reading of the same clause: "the poor, who are as an obscure lamp, he will not quench."
λίνονlinonwickG3043
√ λίνον — flax, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
linon: flax, linen A rare noun; the Verifier finds it in only one other New Testament verse. Here it is the wick, not the cloth.
οὐouvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
σβέσειsbeseiHe will not extinguishG4570
√ σβέννυμι — to extinguish (literally or figuratively)VerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
sbennymi: to extinguish Future under the negative. The same verb carries Paul's command not to quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19) and the foolish virgins' lamps going out (Matthew 25:8). Christ's refusal to quench is the ground of the church's obligation not to.
ἕωςheōstillG2193
√ ἕως — a conjunction, preposition and adverb of continuance, until (of time and place)Conjunction
ἂνan. . .G302
√ ἄν — (what-, where-, wither-, who-)soeverParticle
ἐκβάλῃekbalēHe leadsG1544
√ ἐκβάλλω — to eject (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
ekballō: to cast out, thrust forth Aorist subjunctive with heōs an: a real terminus, not a vague eventually. Poole raises the honest question whether "until" here marks a time limit at all, since "there shall never be a time when Christ shall break a bruised reed," and offers four readings of the clause without choosing one. The gentleness is not described as temporary; the victory is described as certain.
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
κρίσινkrisinjusticeG2920
√ κρίσις — decision (subjectively or objectively, for or against)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
krisis: decision, judgment The same noun as v. 18, and this repetition is how Matthew binds the two halves of the quotation: what is announced to the nations is what is carried through to victory. Cambridge leaves the reference deliberately double, "the Gospel" or "His judgment," and Geneva takes the whole clause as the sentence Christ pronounces "in spite of the world and Satan." Since the accusative here is the object of a verb of forcible expulsion, the noun cannot be a merely inward standard at this point: whatever is announced in v. 18 is here driven out into the open and made to prevail.
εἰςeistoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
νῖκοςnikosvictoryG3534
√ νῖκος — a conquest (concretely), iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
nikos: a conquest, victory A rare noun (4 verses). JFB notes candidly that Isaiah and the Septuagint read "unto truth," and that "our Evangelist merely seizes the spirit, instead of the letter of the prediction in this point." That is a change of word and a change of image, from a verdict established in truth to a verdict carried through to conquest, and the commentators do not hide it.
21

In His name the nations will put their hope.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai tō autou onomati ethnē elpiousin

Word by word6 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τῷtōInG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Singular
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ὀνόματιonomatinameG3686
√ ὄνομα — a "name" (literally or figuratively) (authority, character)NounDative Neuter Singular
onoma: a name, and so authority and character Dative of sphere: the nations will hope within his name. Pulpit connects it forward to Matthew 28:19 and calls the name the thing that "sums up for man all that can be known of God." Gill takes "name" as equivalent to the gospel (citing Acts 9:15) and so harmonises it with Isaiah's "law," that is, his doctrine. Either way the object of Gentile hope is a person, not a code.
ἔθνηethnē[the] nationsG1484
√ ἔθνος — a race (as of the same habit), iNounNominative Neuter Plural
ethnos: a race, nation, Gentile The last word of the quotation is the one furthest from the scene: a man avoiding notice in Galilee, and the nations at the end of the sentence. Barnes notes that the Hebrew reads "the isles shall wait for his law" and treats the substitution as the same idea in other words.
ἐλπιοῦσινelpiousinwill put their hopeG1679
√ ἐλπίζω — to expect or confideVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
elpizō: to expect, to confide Future indicative, third plural. The verb answers the unnamed tis of v. 19: no one will hear his voice in the squares, and nations will hope in his name. The Gospel's logic of hiddenness and harvest is compressed into two verses.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The retreat that fulfils a prophecy — 12:15-17

⚙ The paragraph opens on a participle: γνοὺς, having come to know. What he knows is the counsel of 12:14 to destroy him, and his response is a verb of retirement, ἀνεχώρησεν. Ellicott and Cambridge both read the withdrawal as Jesus obeying the rule he had given his disciples at Matthew 10:23, so that his flight is not an exception to his teaching but an instance of it. Barnes and Poole give the same reason in the same words: "his hour was not yet come," and Barnes adds the practical judgment that remaining "would only have provoked them further." Pulpit alone raises the further motive, that publicity would feed the party which later wanted to seize him and make him king (John 6:15). Then Matthew does something startling. He attaches his formula quotation, ἵνα πληρωθῇ, not to a miracle or a title but to a man leaving town and hushing the people he has healed. Gill states the guard that the grammar requires: the charge was not given in order that prophecy might be fulfilled; Matthew is observing, not reporting a motive. Cambridge notes that the citation does not follow the Hebrew accurately and suggests quotation from memory; Ellicott and Pulpit account for the same looseness as free translation from the Hebrew rather than the Septuagint; Benson says flatly that the evangelist contents himself "with giving us the substance of it in a contracted form." The FSSB records all three explanations and adjudicates none.

ii. Servant, Son, and the voice at the Jordan — 12:18

⚙ The quotation opens with a pointing imperative, Ἰδοὺ, and a word that will not resolve: παῖς, which Poole notes "indifferently signifieth a child or a servant." Cambridge supplies the corporate background, that Israel as a nation bears the title servant of Jehovah (Isaiah 41:8), and that here it is given to Jesus "as the representative of the nation"; Pulpit calls the figure the Ideal Israelite, "up to which true Israelites came in measure, but only One came fully." Then ἀγαπητός and εὐδόκησεν arrive, and Ellicott names what any reader of Matthew 3:17 hears, that the baptismal words are "almost verbally identical with those of the prophecy now cited." The Verifier confirms the shared lexemes. The servant of Isaiah and the beloved Son of the Jordan are the same person, and Matthew lets the collision stand without comment. On κρίσιν the voices genuinely differ: Barnes takes it as the whole system of gospel truth; Geneva as "a godly kingdom"; Cambridge offers both "the law of Christ" and, holding to the Greek, "the divine sentence or decree"; Pulpit, quoting Delitzsch, presses it toward the Hebrew mishpat as a norm and standard for life. What they agree on is negative and important: it is not, here, the power to punish.

iii. Three refusals and two things not destroyed — 12:19-20

⚙ Three negatives fall in a row, οὐκ and οὐδὲ twice, and each names a public act declined: wrangling (ἐρίσει, the litigant's verb, as Gill hears it), clamouring (κραυγάσει, which Barnes glosses "He shall not shout as a warrior"), and being heard in the πλατείαις, the open squares where a cause is advertised. Ellicott sets this calm against the wrangling scribes and the violent Roman officers of the evangelist's own experience. Then two objects are named that anyone else would discard: a reed already crushed (the perfect participle συντετριμμένον) and flax that is only making smoke (τυφόμενον). Gill surveys five candidate referents before choosing young converts under first awakenings; Barnes takes them of the poor and the contrite; Cambridge of failing lives and sparks of faith; Ellicott reads the flax as a lamp needing oil and trimming rather than extinction, and adds the shrewd guess that Matthew the publican had found the words fulfilled in his own experience. The final clause then breaks the gentleness open with a hard verb, ἐκβάλῃ, thrust out. JFB is the most honest witness to the textual seam here: Isaiah and the Septuagint read "unto truth," and "our Evangelist merely seizes the spirit, instead of the letter of the prediction in this point."

iv. The last word is the nations — 12:21

⚙ A sentence that began with a man avoiding attention in Galilee ends with ἔθνη, nations, and a future verb of hoping. Ellicott and Cambridge both correct the English: ἐλπιοῦσιν is "shall hope," and Ellicott records that Matthew here follows the Septuagint against the Hebrew's "in his law." Pulpit weighs a scribal confusion of onomati with nomō and prefers deliberate paraphrase, "bringing out more clearly the fact that the Christian religion is emphatically trust in a Person." Barnes, Gill and JFB all locate a first instalment in the narrative itself: Mark 3:7-8 has crowds from Idumea and from Tyre and Sidon, and JFB calls them "first-fruits of the great Gentile harvest contemplated in the prophecy." Gill harmonises name and law by taking both as the gospel (Acts 9:15). The unit therefore closes where Matthew's Gospel closes, on the nations and on a name (Matthew 28:19), a link Pulpit explicitly draws.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Offered as this tool's own fallible reading, to be tested against the text. The scandal of this paragraph is where Matthew puts his quotation mark. He does not attach Isaiah 42 to a healing, an exorcism, or a confession of Christ's identity. He attaches it to a retreat and a gag order. The fulfilment of the Servant prophecy, in Matthew's reckoning, is that the Servant left the room and told the healed to keep quiet. Read forward from there, the grammar does the theology. The one who will not snap a crushed reed uses a verb, κατεάξει, that the New Testament otherwise reserves for what soldiers do to the legs of the crucified, and the one who will not extinguish a smoking wick is the one who will himself be put out on a Friday afternoon. The tenderness in v. 20 is not a temperament; it is a policy adopted by someone who has already calculated the cost of not fighting back. And the clause that ends it is not soft: ἐκβάλῃ is a shove, the same verb Matthew uses for driving out demons. Gentleness here is not the opposite of conquest but its method. Poole is right to ask whether "until" sets a limit at all, and honest enough to leave four answers open. Our reading: it does not limit the gentleness, it dates the victory, and the two clauses of v. 20 are the same act seen from below and from the end. If this is wrong, it is wrong in the direction of making the cross the hidden middle term of a verse that never mentions it, and the reader should test it there.

Not Scripture, a reading offered to be tested: the verb he refuses to use on a crushed reed is the verb they will not need to use on him.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The two verbs of the reed, and Golgotha verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ Both verbs Matthew uses for the reed reappear at the cross in John's Passion. κατάγνυμι (G2608, to snap off) is the word for breaking the legs of the crucified in John 19:31-33, where the soldiers break the legs of the two others and come to Jesus and do not break his. συντρίβω (G4937, to crush completely), the perfect participle behind "bruised," is the verb of John 19:36, "not one of his bones shall be broken," which John himself marks as a fulfilment (πληρόω, G4137, also shared with Matthew 12:17). The Verifier supplies both bases. The commentary tradition in this brief does not draw the line, so the connection between the two passages is ours; the shared vocabulary is not.

John 19:31 · John 19:33 · John 19:36

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2608 κατάγνυμι (in 4 vv, rare) with John 19:31-33, and G4937 συντρίβω (in 7 vv, rare) plus G4137 πληρόω (in 86 vv) with John 19:36. Verbal link within one Testament; no claim that either author cites the other, and the figural pairing is this tool's synthesis.

He will not quench: the church's obligation traced to Christ's refusal verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ σβέννυμι (G4570, to extinguish) is a rare New Testament verb and its occurrences form a single field. Here the Servant will not quench a smoking wick; at 1 Thessalonians 5:19 the command is "do not quench the Spirit"; at Matthew 25:8 the foolish virgins' lamps are going out; at Ephesians 6:16 faith's shield quenches the flaming darts of the evil one. Gill's reading of the smoking flax as new converts with "but little light of knowledge, faith, and comfort" is what gives this field its pastoral point: the refusal to quench is Christ's practice before it is the church's command.

1 Thessalonians 5:19 · Matthew 25:8 · Ephesians 6:16

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G4570 σβέννυμι (in 6 vv), a rare lexeme, all occurrences within the New Testament. A verbal field, not a quotation of one text by another.

Unto victory: a word Matthew chose and Paul reused verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ νῖκος (G3534, conquest) is rare, and its other New Testament home is the end of 1 Corinthians 15, where death is swallowed up εἰς νῖκος (v. 54), the taunt "O death, where is thy victory" is raised (v. 55), and God is thanked for giving us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (v. 57). The word is not in Isaiah at this point: JFB records that Isaiah and the Septuagint read "unto truth," and that Matthew "merely seizes the spirit, instead of the letter." The thread is therefore between Matthew's own choice of word and Paul's, not between two prophetic texts.

1 Corinthians 15:54 · 1 Corinthians 15:55 · 1 Corinthians 15:57

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G3534 νῖκος (in 4 vv), a rare lexeme, all within the New Testament. Note that νῖκος is Matthew's rendering, not Isaiah's word (JFB), so the link runs Greek to Greek and carries no claim about the Hebrew.

The formula quotation: Isaiah 42:1-4 in Matthew's own words structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ Matthew names his source (v. 17), so the dependence is explicit and undisputed. What is disputed is the manner. Ellicott and Pulpit judge it a free translation from the Hebrew rather than the Septuagint, which Pulpit says it "largely paraphrases"; Cambridge suggests quotation from memory; Benson notes it follows neither the Hebrew exactly nor the Septuagint, whose rendering he calls "a very indifferent interpretation"; Poole prints the Hebrew clauses beside Matthew's and shows the differences one by one, including the dropped "whom I uphold." Ellicott and Gill add that Matthew's closing line follows the Septuagint's "name" where the Hebrew has "law." Gill records that the Messianic reference of the passage was "owned by the Jews themselves," citing the Targum, Kimchi and Abarbanel.

Isaiah 42:1 · Isaiah 42:2 · Isaiah 42:3 · Isaiah 42:4

basis: Explicit citation formula naming Isaiah (Matthew 12:17), attested by Ellicott, Barnes, JFB, Poole, Gill, Cambridge, Pulpit and Benson. Tiered structural rather than verbal because the link crosses Testaments, Greek to Hebrew, so no shared Strong's lexeme can be computed; the commentators also agree the wording is paraphrase, not verbatim rendering of either the Hebrew or the Septuagint.

The words the Father said out loud verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ The two rarest words of v. 18, ἀγαπητός (G27) and εὐδόκησεν (G2106), are the two words the voice from heaven uses at the baptism (Matthew 3:17) and at the transfiguration (Matthew 17:5), and ἰδού stands in all three. Ellicott says the resemblance is what "must also have suggested the application" of Isaiah's Servant to Jesus in the first place, especially given the promise of the Spirit that the baptism had already fulfilled. Gill makes the same connection from the other end: the Father "declared more than once by a voice from heaven, as at his baptism, and at his transfiguration on the mount." Matthew is therefore quoting a prophecy his own narrative has already had God speak.

Matthew 3:17 · Matthew 17:5

basis: Verifier pair check: shared Greek lexemes G2106 εὐδοκέω (in 21 vv) and G27 ἀγαπητός (in 60 vv), with G2400 ἰδού (in 226 vv); both moderately rare and both decisive words of the clause. All three verses are in Matthew, so the link is within one Testament and one author.

Silencing the witnesses structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The stern charge of v. 16 belongs to a pattern Luke records with the same verb: at Luke 4:41 demons come out crying that he is the Son of God, "and he rebuked them" and did not allow them to speak. JFB notes Mark's parallel here (Mark 3:11-12) and asks, of the demons' cry, "How glorious this extorted homage to the Son of God! But as this was not the time, so neither were they the fitting preachers." Gill thinks the charge in Matthew was given both to the healed and to the unclean spirits. The link is one of pattern; the vocabulary overlap is real but not rare enough to carry a stronger claim.

Luke 4:41 · Mark 3:12

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2008 ἐπιτιμάω (in 29 vv) and G2905 κραυγάζω (in 9 vv) with Luke 4:41. Deliberately tiered structural, not verbal: ἐπιτιμάω is common enough that the overlap alone would not establish dependence, and the Mark 3:12 reference is supplied by JFB and Gill rather than by the Verifier.

In his name, or in his law: a contested line flagged: verify source

⚙ The closing line of the citation is the one place where our sources openly disagree about what Matthew was working from. Ellicott states it flatly: "The Hebrew gives 'in his law,' but St. Matthew follows the LXX." Cambridge says the same of both halves of the clause, adding that "trust" should be "hope." Pulpit goes further and raises the possibility that ὀνόματι arose from a confusion with νόμῳ, before judging deliberate paraphrase more probable. Gill and Poole harmonise instead, taking "name" and "law" both as the gospel or doctrine of Christ (Gill citing Acts 9:15). We flag rather than adjudicate: the substitution of name for law is a real and disputed textual divergence at the hinge of the unit's most quoted line, and the reader should weigh it before building on either word.

Isaiah 42:4

basis: Contested provenance of the quotation's final clause: Ellicott and Cambridge report that the Hebrew reads 'in his law' while Matthew follows the Septuagint's 'name'; Pulpit raises and then doubts a confusion of ὀνόματι with νόμῳ. Cross-Testament, so no shared Strong's lexeme can be computed. Flagged because our sources give three different accounts of how the line reached its present form.

λίνον: the same rare word, a different thing structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The Verifier reports that the noun λίνον (G3043, flax or linen) occurs in only two New Testament verses: the smoking wick here, and the clean bright linen worn by the seven angels of Revelation 15:6. We record the rarity and decline the obvious sermon. The sense differs (a burning wick of flax fibre against woven cloth), and neither writer shows any sign of thinking of the other. The link is a lexical fact worth knowing, not an interpretive bridge.

Revelation 15:6

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G3043 λίνον (in 2 vv), the rarest overlap in this unit. Explicitly downgraded from verbal despite the rarity, because the two uses carry different senses and no quotation, allusion or shared motif is claimed.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Servant of the LORD is this man ancient/widely-held

⚙ The identification is the plain sense of the passage, since Matthew makes it himself. The tradition in this brief is unanimous on it and specific about how it works. Barnes grounds the title in Philippians 2:7 and Hebrews 10:9, the form of a servant and the coming to do God's will; Poole does the same and then binds the Servant's election to the church's, "hence we are said to be chosen in him, Ephesians 1:4," with 1 Peter 1:20 and 2:6 behind it. Gill reads the whole verse of Christ as mediator, elect and upheld, anointed with the Spirit without measure. Cambridge and Pulpit add the corporate dimension, that the title first belonged to Israel (Isaiah 41:8) and that Jesus bears it as the nation's representative, the one Israelite who came fully up to the ideal. Gill also records that the Messianic reference of Isaiah 42 was "owned by the Jews themselves," citing the Targum and Kimchi. Ellicott notes that the Evangelist in so referring the words "was following in the footsteps of the Chaldee Paraphrase."

Isaiah 42:1 · Philippians 2:7 · Ephesians 1:4 · Matthew 3:17

The one who does not break is the one not broken novel

⚙ This reading is ours and should be weighed as such. Matthew's two verbs for what the Servant will not do to a ruined reed, κατάγνυμι and συντρίβω, are the two verbs of John 19: the soldiers snap the legs of the crucified but do not snap his, and John declares the Scripture fulfilled, "not one of his bones shall be broken." The Verifier confirms that both lexemes are rare and shared. The typology we draw is that the Servant's restraint toward the crushed is not merely a disposition he has but a fate he takes: he declines to break, and is himself not broken, because the breaking falls elsewhere. The Passover lamb reading of John 19:36 is ancient; pairing it with Matthew 12:20 is, so far as this brief's commentators go, not attested here, so we mark the pairing novel.

John 19:33 · John 19:36 · Matthew 12:20

Hope of the nations before the nations had heard ancient/widely-held

⚙ The last line of the quotation puts Gentiles at the end of a paragraph about a Galilean who is avoiding attention. Ellicott observes that the work of preaching to the Gentiles had not yet begun, and that Matthew "notes, as it were, by anticipation, the spirit of love and gentleness" which by the time he wrote had brought them in; he calls this Gospel, written for Jews, "emphatically a Gospel for the Gentiles." JFB and Barnes and Gill all point to the crowds already present from Idumea, Tyre and Sidon (Mark 3:7-8) as the first instalment, JFB naming them "first-fruits of the great Gentile harvest." Pulpit closes the circle by reading the verse against Matthew 28:19, "an utterance never lost sight of by the evangelist." The redemptive-historical shape is therefore drawn by the commentators themselves: hiddenness now, nations later, and the name as the object of hope in both.

Isaiah 42:4 · Mark 3:8 · Matthew 28:19 · Acts 9:15

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

⚙ Honesty notes for this unit. (1) The text is BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbering; parses and glosses in the notes come from that apparatus and not from our judgment. (2) The central textual fact of the unit is that Matthew 12:18-21 does not reproduce Isaiah 42:1-4 exactly in any known form. Our sources say so in different ways and we have not harmonised them: Cambridge suspects memory, Ellicott and Pulpit see free translation of the Hebrew, Benson sees a contracted summary that follows neither the Hebrew nor the Septuagint, JFB says the Evangelist "merely seizes the spirit, instead of the letter" at "unto victory" where the Hebrew and Septuagint read "unto truth," and Ellicott notes the closing line follows the Septuagint's "name" against the Hebrew's "law." Pulpit further lists two clauses of Isaiah that Matthew omits or fuses. A reader who wants the Hebrew of Isaiah 42 should go there; this unit records only what our commentators report about it. (3) Pulpit's suggestion that Matthew's "strive" derives from the Syriac narib is offered by Pulpit himself as "possible, but not probable," and we carry it as a proposal only. (4) Pulpit's citation of the Lucianic and Swete readings of 1 Chronicles 29:1 as a parallel to ᾑρέτισα is reproduced from his text; we have not independently checked those editions. (5) Thread bases are Verifier-computed shared Strong's lexemes with frequencies, except the Matthew 3:17 and 17:5 pair, which we obtained by running the Verifier's pair check directly, and the Mark 3:12 reference, which comes from JFB and Gill rather than from the Verifier. (6) The Isaiah thread is tiered structural rather than verbal solely because the link crosses Testaments and Greek cannot share Strong's numbers with Hebrew; nobody disputes that Matthew is citing Isaiah. (7) The λίνον link to Revelation 15:6 is deliberately under-tiered: the lexeme is genuinely rare but the senses differ, and we would rather record a lexical coincidence as a coincidence. (8) The identification of the bruised reed and smoking flax is left open because our sources leave it open; Gill lists five candidate referents and chooses one, and we have not treated his choice as settled. (9) The cross typology in the second Christ entry is our own synthesis and is marked novel; the shared vocabulary underlying it is not ours.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)