The Meaning of Romans 3:16 Explained

Romans 3:16

KJV: Destruction and misery are in their ways:

YLT: Ruin and misery are in their ways.

Darby: ruin and misery are in their ways,

ASV: Destruction and misery are in their ways;

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Destruction  and  misery  [are] in  their  ways: 

What does Romans 3:16 Mean?

Context Summary

Romans 3:9-20 - All Justly Under Judgment
A number of quotations are advanced-mostly from the Septuagint or Greek version of the Old Testament-establishing the hopeless evil of man's condition. These apply, in the first place, to God's peculiar people, the Jews; but if true of them, how terrible must be the condition of the great heathen world! Every mouth will be stopped and all the world brought in guilty before God, Romans 3:19. Various organs of the body are enumerated, and in each ease some terrible affirmation is made of inbred depravity. What need for salvation! What can atone for such sin, or cleanse such hearts, save the redeeming grace of God?
Law here is obviously employed in the wide sense of conscience as well as Scripture. It is God's ideal held up before our faces, to show us from what we have fallen. The looking-glass is intended, not to wash the face, but to show how much it needs washing. You may commend your soap, and no one will use it; but if you reveal the discoloring filth, people will be only too glad to avail themselves of the cleansing power which otherwise they would neglect and despise. The way to fill the inquiry room is to hold up the divine standard before men's consciences. [source]

Chapter Summary: Romans 3

1  The Jews prerogative;
3  which they have not lost;
9  howbeit the law convinces them also of sin;
20  therefore no one is justified by the law;
28  but all, without difference, by faith, only;
31  and yet the law is not abolished

Greek Commentary for Romans 3:16

Destruction [συντριμμα]
Rare word from συντριβω — suntribō to rub together, to crush. In Leviticus 21:19 for fracture and so in papyri. Only here in N.T. [source]
Misery [ταλαιπωρια]
Common word from ταλαιπωρος — talaipōros (Romans 7:24), only here in the N.T. [source]
Destruction [σύντριμμα]
A dashing to pieces. Only here. The kindred verb συντρίβω tobreak in pieces, shiver, is frequent. See Mark 5:4; Mark 14:3; Revelation 2:27, etc. [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Romans 3:16

James 5:1 Miseries [ταλαιπωρίαις]
Only here and Romans 3:16. See on be afflicted, James 4:9. [source]

What do the individual words in Romans 3:16 mean?

ruin and misery [are] in the paths of them
σύντριμμα καὶ ταλαιπωρία ἐν ταῖς ὁδοῖς αὐτῶν

σύντριμμα  ruin 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Neuter Singular
Root: σύντριμμα  
Sense: that which is broken or shattered, a fracture.
ταλαιπωρία  misery 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Feminine Singular
Root: ταλαιπωρία  
Sense: hardship, trouble, calamity, misery.
ἐν  [are]  in 
Parse: Preposition
Root: ἐν 
Sense: in, by, with etc.
ὁδοῖς  paths 
Parse: Noun, Dative Feminine Plural
Root: ὁδός 
Sense: properly.
αὐτῶν  of  them 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
Root: αὐτός  
Sense: himself, herself, themselves, itself.

What are the major concepts related to Romans 3:16?

Loading Information...