=3, 4. Lord, behold whom thou lovest is sick.= They have complete confidence in the sympathy of their Lord; they do not urge him to come; they do not present any petition; they simply report their trouble to him.--=He said, This sickness is not unto death.= That is, has not death for its object; (πρὸς with the accusative, marks strictly the object towards which anything is directed.) Christ does not say that Lazarus will not die, but that death is not the end for which this sickness is ordained of God.--=But for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.= Comp. ch. 9:3, note. He was glorified, (1) perhaps by the development of a higher spiritual life in Lazarus through his sickness, death and resurrection (_Trench_), though of this the Evangelist gives us no hint; (2) by the manifestation of the divine power of Jesus Christ, as one whom the Father always hears (ver. 42); (3) by the Passion and death of Jesus Christ, to which the resurrection of Lazarus directly led (vers. 47-53). This saying of Christ seems to have been uttered not merely to his disciples; it was apparently his message to the sisters, and to it he refers in verse 40 (see note there). 5 Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. 6 When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was. 7 Then after that saith he to _his_ disciples, Let us go into Judæa again. =5-7. Now Jesus loved Martha=, etc. This statement is made in explanation of verse 6, that the reader may not fall into the error of supposing that Christ’s delay was due to any indifference or unconcern on his part.--=He abode two days in the same place where he was.= Why? Either because this delay was necessary to complete the work in which he was engaged, and from which he would not suffer himself to be drawn away even by considerations of personal sympathy, he himself acting on the principle “Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:60); or because this delay was necessary to the consummation of the miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus in such form as to forever prohibit the impression that death had not really taken place. The former is the better hypothesis, since in no case does Christ seem to have wrought a miracle for the mere purpose of producing by it a profound impression, and it is therefore hardly consistent to believe that he would have delayed merely for the purpose of making the miracle more startling and marvelous.--=Let us go into Judea again.= This plainly implies that Jesus and his disciples were not then in Judea, and thus incidentally confirms the supposition (see Prel. Note) that the resurrection of Lazarus was subsequent to the close of the ministry in Perea, and that he was summoned from Perea. 8 _His_ disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late[429] sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again?[430]