18 Just dead - He had left her at the point of
death, Mark 5:23. Probably a messenger had now informed him she was dead.
Mark 5:22; Luke 8:41.
20 Coming behind - Out of bashfulness and humility.
22 Take courage - Probably she was struck with fear, when
he turned and looked upon her, Mark 5:33; Luke 8:47; lest she should have
offended him, by touching his garment privately; and the more so, because
she was unclean according to the law, Lev 15:25.
23 The minstrels - The musicians. The original word means
flute players. Musical instruments were used by the Jews as well as the
heathens, in their lamentations for the dead, to soothe the melancholy
of surviving friends, by soft and solemn notes. And there were persons
who made it their business to perform this, while others sung to their
music. Flutes were used especially on the death of children; louder instruments
on the death of grown persons.
24 Withdraw - There is no need of you now; for the maid
is not dead - Her life is not at an end; but sleepeth - This is only a
temporary suspension of sense and motion, which should rather be termed
sleep than death.
25 The maid arose - Christ raised three dead persons to
life; this child, the widow's son, and Lazarus: one newly departed, another
on the bier, the third smelling in the grave: to show us that no degree
of death is so desperate as to be past his help.
