Matthew 9:24 - Exposition

He said unto them, Give place ; withdraw ( ἀναχωρεῖτε ). This is no room for mourners (cf. Acts 9:40 ). For the maid ; damsel (Revised Version). to assimilate this and Matthew 9:25 to the other passages where κοράσιον is found. Is not dead, but sleepeth. Our Lord looks forward to the result of his coming. So also probably Acts 20:10 . To take our Lord's words here as a literal statement of a present fact, meaning that she was only in a trance, is to contradict the words of the messenger (parallel passages), our next succeeding clause, and Luke's addition to it, "knowing that she was dead." And they laughed him to scorn . Bengel suggests that they were afraid of losing the payment for their work.