“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani”
KING JAMES VERSION (KJV)
TRANSLATION, MEANING, CONTEXT
WORDS OF JESUS IN RED
As Jesus is being crucified upon the cross he cries aloud, quoting from Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”. A slight variation is Mark 15:34, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthan”.
To get what Matthew 27:46 means in detail, scroll down or follow these links for the original scriptural meaning , biblical context and relative popularity.
“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
What does this verse really mean? Use this table to get a word-for-word translation of the original Greek Scripture. This shows the English words related to the source biblical texts along with brief definitions. Follow the buttons in the right-hand column for detailed definitions and verses that use the same root words. Use this reference information to gain deeper insight into the Bible and enrich your understanding. Information based on Strong's Exhaustive Concordance[1].
| KJV Verse | Original Greek | Meaning/ Definition This is a simplified translation of the original Greek word. Follow the buttons on the right to get more detail. | More Use the buttons below to get details on the Greek word and view related Bible verses that use the same root word. |
|---|---|---|---|
| “And” | δὲ | But, and, etc | And |
| “about” | περὶ | Properly, through (all over), i.e., around; figuratively with respect to; used in various applications, of place, cause or time (with the genitive case denoting the subject or occasion or superlative point; with the accusative case the locality, circuit, matter, circumstance or general period) | about |
| “the” | τὴν | The (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom) | the |
| “ninth” | ἐννάτην | Ninth | ninth |
| “hour” | ὥραν | An "hour" (literally or figuratively) | hour |
| “Jesus” | Ἰησοῦς | Jesus (i.e., Jehoshua), the name of our Lord and two (three) other Israelites | Jesus |
| “cried with” | ἀνεβόησεν | To halloo | cried |
| “a” | φωνῇ | A tone (articulate, bestial or artificial); by implication, an address (for any purpose), saying or language | a |
| “loud” | μεγάλῃ | Big (literally or figuratively, in a very wide application) | loud |
| “voice,” | φωνῇ | A tone (articulate, bestial or artificial); by implication, an address (for any purpose), saying or language | voice |
| “saying,” | λέγων, | Properly, to "lay" forth, i.e., (figuratively) relate (in words (usually of systematic or set discourse; whereas G2036 and G5346 generally refer to an individual expression or speech respectively; while G4483 is properly to break silence merely, and G2980 means an extended or random harangue)); by implication, to mean | saying |
| “Eli,” | Ηλι | My God | Eli |
| “Eli,” | ηλι | My God | Eli |
| “lama” | λαμὰ | Lama (i.e., why) | lama |
| “sabachthani?” | σαβαχθανι | Thou hast left me; sabachthani (i.e., shebakthani), a cry of distress | sabachthani |
| “that” | τοῦτ' | That thing | that |
| “is to say,” | ἔστιν | He (she or it) is; also (with neuter plural) they are | say |
| “My” | μου | Of me | My |
| “God,” | Θεέ | A deity, especially (with G3588) the supreme Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; exceedingly (by Hebraism) | God |
| “my” | μου | Of me | my |
| “God,” | θεέ | A deity, especially (with G3588) the supreme Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; exceedingly (by Hebraism) | God |
| “why” | ἱνατί | For what reason ?, i.e., why? | why |
| “hast thou forsaken” | ἐγκατέλιπες | To leave behind in some place, i.e., (in a good sense) let remain over, or (in a bad sense) to desert | forsaken |
| “me?” | με | Me | me |
See Matthew 27:46 with its adjacent verses in bold below. Follow either of the two large buttons below to see these verses in their broader context of the King James Bible or a Bible concordance.
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44 The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.
45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
47 Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias.
48 And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.
The King James Bible (1611) and Strong's Concordance (1890) with Hebrew and Greek dictionaries are sourced from the BibleForgeDB database (https://github.com/bibleforge) within the BibleForge project (http://bibleforge.com). Popularity rankings are based on search volume data from the Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool.