The Beatitudes
1 Seeing the multitudes, he went up onto the mountain. When he had sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 He opened his mouth and taught them, saying, 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. 10 Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Nine declarations of who is already well off in God's reckoning — every one of them describing a person the world would count unlucky.
Seeing the multitudes, he went up onto the mountain. When he had sat down, his disciples came to him.
The posture is a teacher's — sitting was the position of authority for instruction — and the mountain is the first of this Gospel's mountains, with Sinai audible behind it. What follows is not a new law given to replace an old one, as the next paragraph will insist Matthew 5:17, but the character of the people the kingdom produces.
And note who is standing where. The crowds draw him up the hill; the disciples come close; the teaching is aimed at them with everyone listening. The sermon is instruction for followers, overheard by a nation.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
The word rendered blessed is not a wish or an encouragement — it is a declaration that someone is already in a fortunate position, and every one of the nine names a condition nobody would choose. Poor in spirit means bankrupt before God with nothing to offer, which is exactly the state the Pharisee in the temple could not reach and the tax collector arrived at Luke 18:13–14. The kingdom is given first to people who know they cannot afford it.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
The order is deliberate: seeing your own poverty produces grief before it produces anything else. And the promises attached run in two tenses — theirs is the kingdom, present, at the first and the last of the eight; they shall be comforted, filled, shown mercy, in between. The bracket says the kingdom is possessed now and its consequences are still coming.
Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
The promise is quoted from a psalm about waiting while the wicked prosper Psalms 37:11, and it is a reversal of everything the ancient world assumed: the earth goes to the meek rather than to those who take it.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.
The second group turns outward. Mercy, single-hearted purity, and the active making of peace are what the first four conditions produce in a person, and each carries a promise that matches its own shape — the merciful obtain mercy, the pure see God, the peacemakers are called his children.
“Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
The last beatitude changes from they to you and lengthens, which marks it as the one the audience will need most. The qualification matters — falsely, and for my sake — since suffering earned by being disagreeable is not on offer here. The company promised is the prophets, and the reward is not compensation for the trouble but the standing it reveals.
settled What this mark means