Mark 5:39

39 When he had entered, he said to them, "Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping."

Mark 5:39 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 5:39

And when he was come in
Into the house, within doors, into one of the apartments, and where the company of mourners, and the pipers, and mourning women were, singing and saying their doleful ditties:

he saith unto them, why make ye this ado and weep?
why all this tumult and noise? this grief and mourning, whether real or artificial?

the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth:
not but that she was truly dead, but not so as to remain under the power of death: she was like a person in a sleep, who would in a little time be awaked out of it: and which was as easily performed by Christ, as if she had been only in a natural sleep; (See Gill on Matthew 9:24).

Mark 5:39 In-Context

37 He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.
38 When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.
39 When he had entered, he said to them, "Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping."
40 And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was.
41 He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha cum," which means, "Little girl, get up!"
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.