Love Your Enemies

The words

Matthew 5:38–48 (opens a new tab)

1. Borrow

   Matthew records Jesus pairing giving to someone who asks with not turning away someone who would borrow; this follows the garment and compelled-mile examples.

   Matthew 5:40–42 (opens a new tab)

2. Cloke

   Cloak; an outer garment.

   Matthew’s KJV spells this garment “cloak”: in the lawsuit example, Jesus says to let the person seeking the coat have the cloak also; the printed puzzle uses Cloke.

   Matthew 5:40 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Matthew 5:38-48 (opens a new tab)

3. Coat

   Tunic; a long garment worn beneath a cloak.

   Matthew’s KJV names the coat as the garment sought in the lawsuit; the NET calls it a tunic and explains that it is worn beneath the cloak.

   Matthew 5:40 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Matthew 5:38-48 (opens a new tab)

4. Compel

   Force or require.

   Matthew places compel in the example of someone requiring a mile of travel; Jesus’s response in the KJV is “go with him twain,” before the instruction about giving.

   Matthew 5:41–42 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Matthew 5:38-48 (opens a new tab)

5. Despitefully

   Abusively; with mistreatment.

   In Matthew’s KJV, Jesus says to pray for those who “despitefully use you”; NET Matthew has “pray for those who persecute you” and explains the shorter manuscript reading.

   Matthew 5:44 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Matthew 5:38-48 (opens a new tab)

6. Enemies

   Matthew records Jesus saying “Love your enemies” after the saying about loving a neighbor and hating an enemy; he then speaks of the Father’s sun and rain.

   Matthew 5:43–45 (opens a new tab)

7. Eye for an Eye

   Matthew introduces Jesus’s response with “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth”; Exodus 21:24 contains the corresponding eye-and-tooth formula in the KJV.

   Matthew 5:38–39 (opens a new tab) · Exodus 21:24 (opens a new tab)

8. Mile

   A Roman mile, about 4,850 feet (1,480 m).

   Matthew gives one mile as the required distance in Jesus’s example, followed by twain; the lexical entry identifies the unit as a Roman mile, shorter than a modern mile.

   Did you know?

   Thayer describes the Roman mile as a thousand paces or eight stadia, noting that it was shorter than the mile familiar to his readers.

   Matthew 5:41 (opens a new tab) · Bible Hub G3400: Roman mile (opens a new tab)

9. Perfect

   Jesus closes this section with “Be ye therefore perfect,” naming the heavenly Father as the comparison; Matthew places this after the examples about loving and greeting others.

   Matthew 5:46–48 (opens a new tab)

10. Resist

    Matthew’s KJV places Jesus’s words “resist not evil” after the eye-for-an-eye quotation and before the right-cheek example; the garment and compelled-mile examples follow in the next verses.

    Matthew 5:38–41 (opens a new tab)

11. Right Cheek

    Matthew’s KJV specifies the right cheek in Jesus’s striking example, followed by the instruction to turn the other also; the next example concerns a lawsuit over a garment.

    Matthew 5:39–40 (opens a new tab)

12. Salute

    Greet; acknowledge someone on meeting.

    Matthew records Jesus asking what is distinctive about greeting only one’s brethren; the KJV uses salute in this question, while the NET uses greet.

    Matthew 5:47 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Matthew 5:38-48 (opens a new tab)

13. Smite

    Strike or hit.

    In Matthew’s KJV, smite is the action directed at the right cheek in Jesus’s example; his response in the saying is to turn the other cheek also.

    Matthew 5:39 (opens a new tab)

14. Twain

    Two, referring here to miles.

    Matthew’s KJV gives “go with him twain” as Jesus’s response to someone compelling a mile of travel; the word makes the stated distance two miles.

    Matthew 5:41 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Matthew 5:38-48 (opens a new tab)

15. Unjust

    Matthew pairs the unjust with the just as recipients of rain in Jesus’s description of the Father; the same verse places evil and good together under the rising sun.

    Matthew 5:45 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Matthew 5:38-48 (opens a new tab)