Matthew 9:27

Healing the Blind and Mute

9:27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, shouting, ¹  “Have mercy ²  on us, Son of David!” ³ 

Matthew 15:22

15:22 A ⁴  Canaanite woman from that area came ⁵  and cried out, ⁶  “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is horribly demon-possessed!”

Matthew 17:15

17:15 and said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, because he has seizures ⁷  and suffers terribly, for he often falls into the fire and into the water.

Matthew 20:31-32

20:31 The ⁸  crowd scolded ⁹  them to get them to be quiet. But they shouted even more loudly, “Lord, have mercy on us, ¹⁰  Son of David!” 20:32 Jesus stopped, called them, and said, “What do you want me to do for you?”

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¹ tn Grk “shouting, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

² sn Have mercy on us is a request for healing. It is not owed to the men. They simply ask for God’s kind grace.

³ sn There was a tradition in Judaism that the Son of David (Solomon) had great powers of healing (Josephus, Ant. 8.2.5 [8.42-49]).

⁴ tn Grk “And behold a Canaanite.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

⁵ tn Grk The participle ἐξελθοῦσα (exelqousa) is here translated as a finite verb. The emphasis is upon her crying out to Jesus.

⁶ tn Grk “cried out, saying.” The participle λέγουσα (legousa) is redundant here in contemporary English and has not been translated.

⁷ tn Grk “he is moonstruck,” possibly meaning “lunatic” (so NAB, NASB), although now the term is generally regarded as referring to some sort of seizure disorder such as epilepsy (L&N 23.169; BDAG 919 s.v. σεληνιάζομαι).

⁸ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

⁹ tn Or “rebuked.” The crowd’s view was that surely Jesus would not be bothered with someone as unimportant as a blind beggar.

¹⁰ tc ‡ The majority of mss (C W ˹ 33 Ï and several versional witnesses) read κύριε (kurie, “Lord”) after ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς (elehson Jhma", “have mercy on us”). But since this is the order of words in v. 30 (though that wording is also disputed), and since the κύριε-first reading enjoys widespread and early support (א B D L Z Θ 085 0281 ˹³ 892 pc lat), the latter was considered original. However, the decision was by no means easy. NA²⁷ has κύριε after ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς here; a majority of that committee felt that since the placement of κύριε in last place was the nonliturgical order it “would have been likely to be altered in transcription to the more familiar sequence” (TCGNT 44).