StrongerBible

klauthmos

κλαυθμός

GreekG2805“weeping, wailing”

Appears 9 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 2:18Mat 8:12Mat 13:42Mat 13:50Mat 22:13Mat 24:51Mat 25:30Luk 13:28Act 20:37
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeKLOWTH-mossnoun

What klauthmos means

loud, audible weeping: grief cried out so it can be heard, not silent tears.

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This word names the sound of grief. It is not the quiet welling of tears but weeping heard out loud: crying, wailing, the noise a grieving household or crowd makes together. New Testament writers had a separate word for silent tears (δάκρυον); when they chose this one, they meant sorrow loud enough to be heard.

It turns up in two very different settings, yet means the same thing in both. In plain scenes of human loss it is real, uncontrolled crying: Rachel wailing for her murdered children, or the elders of Ephesus breaking down as they say goodbye to Paul. In Jesus's teaching it becomes a fixed, chilling picture, "weeping and gnashing of teeth," for the anguish of those shut out of God's kingdom.

What holds the two together is one idea: loud, shared grief poured out. Only the occasion changes, from a mother's mourning to a tearful farewell to the terror of judgment. In the judgment sayings the crying is paired with the grinding of teeth (βρυγμός), so that the sound of sorrow and the sound of rage stand side by side.

Nuances

1athe loud wailing of those shut out of God's kingdom, in Jesus's set phrase "weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Mat 8:12Mat 13:42Mat 13:50Mat 22:13Mat 24:51Mat 25:30Luk 13:28
1bloud, uncontrolled weeping in real grief, whether mourning the dead or grieving a painful farewell.
Mat 2:18Act 20:37

Disputed

What the weeping expresses in Matthew's formula "the weeping and the gnashing of teeth", and how it relates to the paired gnashing.

  • majorityThe weeping is the grief and anguish of those excluded from the kingdom, while the gnashing of teeth expresses their impotent rage; the pair together conveys the totality of eschatological woe, sorrow set beside fury.; W. D. Davies and D. C. Allison, Matthew, ICC (1988-1997), on 8:12; R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, NICNT (2007), on 8:12; J. Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew, NIGTC (2005), 357
  • minorityThe whole phrase expresses despairing remorse, with the anger element downplayed; both weeping and gnashing signal the anguished regret of the condemned.; K. H. Rengstorf, TDNT 3:726 (and 1:641-642 on gnashing)

What scholars say about klauthmos

κλαυθμός is a noun of action formed on the aorist stem of the verb κλαίω with the suffix -θμός, marking the act or sound of weeping rather than the tear itself. The standard lexica agree on the sense: BDAG (546) gives "weeping, crying"; LSJ gives "weeping, wailing"; Louw-Nida (25.138) defines it as weeping "with emphasis upon the noise accompanying the weeping," deliberately separated from the silent δάκρυον. Rengstorf (TDNT 3:722-726) traces the classical range from Homeric funerary keening to a child's crying and shows how the Septuagint adds a religious layer, making κλαυθμός the near-standard rendering of Hebrew בְּכִי and the cover-term for communal, penitential, and covenantal weeping. Six sayings in Matthew and Luke 13:28 carry the fixed formula ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων; Turner (A Grammar of NT Greek, vol. 3: Syntax, 173) argues the double article marks "the" weeping of eschatological exclusion, and Davies & Allison document the phrase's roots in Jewish apocalyptic literature (1 Enoch, Sibylline Oracles, Psalms of Solomon). Matthew 2:18 quotes Jeremiah 31:15 (38:15 LXX), fusing the Bethlehem massacre with Rachel's exile lament; Acts 20:37 uses κλαυθμὸς πολύς for the Ephesian elders' farewell to Paul, a conventional weeping type-scene (Keener, Fitzmyer, Barrett).

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • F. W. Danker, ed., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (BDAG), 3rd ed. (2000), 546, s.v. κλαυθμόςlexicon
  • LSJ, A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. κλαυθμόςlexicon
  • J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon Based on Semantic Domains, 2nd ed. (1989), 25.138lexicon
  • K. H. Rengstorf, "κλαίω, κλαυθμός," TDNT 3:722-726dictionary
  • W. D. Davies and D. C. Allison, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, ICC (1988-1997)commentary
  • N. Turner, A Grammar of New Testament Greek, vol. 3: Syntax (1963), 173grammar
  • C. S. Keener, Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, vol. 3 (2014), 3082-3094commentary
  • J. A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV, AB 28A (1985), 1021-1024commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of κλαυθμός

nominative m s

κλαυθμὸς

Mat 2:18, Mat 8:12, Mat 13:42, Mat 13:50, Mat 22:13, Mat 24:51, Mat 25:30, Luk 13:28