"Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven...." (Matthew 5:3-12)

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Old Testament

Psalm 37:9,11
[T]hose who wait on the Lord,
They shall inherit the earth....
[T]he meek shall inherit the earth,
And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
 
Psalm 22:26

The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
Those who seek Him will praise the Lord.
Let your heart live forever!

Isaiah 29:19

The humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord,
And the poor among men shall rejoice....

Zephaniah 2:3
Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth,
Who have upheld His justice.
Seek righteousness, seek humility.
Psalm 106:3
Blessed are those who keep justice,
And he who does righteousness at all times!
Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly, to love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?
Psalm 119:1-3
Blessed are [those]...who walk in the law of the Lord!
Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,
Who seek Him with the whole heart!
They also do no iniquity;
They walk in His ways.
Psalm 34:11-14
Come, you children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
Who is the man who desires life,
And loves many days, that he may see good?
Keep your tongue from evil,
And your lips from speaking deceit.
Depart from evil and do good;
Seek peace and pursue it.

The New Testament

Matthew 5:3-12

"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you,
and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.
Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven,
for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Luke 6:20-26

Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said:
"Blessed are you poor,
For yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now,
For you shall be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now,
For you shall laugh.
Blessed are you when men hate you,
And when they exclude you,
And revile you, and cast out your name as evil,
For the Son of Man's sake.
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy!
For indeed your reward is great in heaven,
For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.
But woe to you who are rich,
For you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are full,
For you shall hunger.
Woe to you who laugh now,
For you shall mourn and weep.
Woe to you when all men speak well of you,
For so did their fathers to the false prophets."

Luke 11:28

"Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"

The Heavenly Doctrines

What Is Charity?

Charity 126

A person is born that he may become charity; but he cannot become charity unless he perpetually does the good of use to the neighbor, from affection and delight.

True Christian Religion 435

[T]he first thing of charity is not to do evil to the neighbor; and to do good to him holds the second place.

Charity 202

No one can have charity from the Lord unless he shuns evils as sins.... Anyone can do good to the neighbor, an evil as well as a good person; but no one can do it from good in himself unless from the Lord; nor unless he shuns evils as sins...

Last Judgment 39:11, 12
Charity consists in an inward affection for doing what is true.... Charity is a person's spiritual life.
Arcana Coelestia 5132:2   

Charity consists essentially in desiring the welfare of one's neighbor, in having an affection for what is good, and in acknowledging that since what is good is one's neighbor, those who are governed by good are consequently one's neighbor, but varyingly so, depending on the amount of good that governs the individual person.

Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

Apocalypse Explained 118

To be spiritually poor, and yet to be rich, is to acknowledge in heart that one has no knowledge nor understanding nor wisdom from himself, but that he knows, understands, and is wise wholly from the Lord.

Apocalypse Explained 118:2  

He who is spiritually poor is nevertheless rich, because he is in the spiritual affection of truth; for into this affection intelligence and wisdom from the Lord flow. For everyone's affection receives and imbibes things congenial to it, as a sponge does water. Therefore the spiritual affection of truth receives and imbibes spiritual truths, which are the truths of the church, from the Word. The spiritual affection of truth has no other source than the Lord, because the Lord is Divine truth in heaven and in the church, for Divine truth proceeds from Him.

see Apocalypse Revealed 209  

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:3), "the poor" means those who are not in the knowledges of truth and good and yet desire them.

Blessed Are They Who Mourn or Weep

see Apocalypse Explained 1129:2

To weep symbolizes mourning on account of falsities, and to wail symbolizes mourning on account of evils.

see Apocalypse Explained 5480  

Weeping is expressive of grief and love...and consequently it is expressive of mercy or pity, for mercy is love grieving. The Divine love is therefore called mercy, because the human race is of itself in hell; and when a person perceives this in himself, he implores mercy.

see Apocalypse Explained 4783  

To comfort...signifies to interpret from the sense of the letter of the Word...evident from the signification of "comforting," as being to allay unrest of mind by the hope of something (n. 3610), here unrest or mourning over destroyed good and truth; and as this mourning cannot be allayed except by interpretations from the Word...therefore by "comforting" are signified the interpretations which are made from the sense of the letter. From this it is evident that the sense of the letter is of service to the simple for initiation into the internal sense.

Blessed Are the Meek

Apocalypse Explained 304:44

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" (Matt. 5:5). "Inheriting the earth" symbolizes not possession of the earth, but possession of heaven and blessedness there. The "meek" mean those who are in the good of charity.

see Arcana Coelestia 2658:5  

Inheriting means receiving life from the Lord, and therefore receiving eternal life or heaven, for only those who receive the Lord's life receive heaven.

Blessed Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

Apocalypse Explained 118:3
By the "hungry and thirsty" are meant those who continually long for truths, and long to be perfected by means of truths.
Apocalypse Explained 386:17

"Blessed are they who hunger for justice[or righteousness], for they shall be filled" (5:6). To hunger for justice means to desire good.

Arcana Coelestia 9263:2

[T]he Word calls those "the righteous" who are governed by the good of charity towards the neighbor, received from the Lord. For the Lord alone is righteous, since He alone is Righteousness; and therefore in the measure that a person receives good from the Lord,...he is righteous and has been justified.... This Divine virtue residing with a person who receives it is the Lord's Righteousness with him. And it is the true good of charity towards the neighbor. For the Lord is within the good of love and through this within the truth of faith, the Lord being Divine Love itself.

Blessed Are the Merciful

see Arcana Coelestia 5132
"Mercy" means charity because all who have charity have mercy, that is, all who love their neighbor are merciful towards him. This also explains why the Word describes the practice of charity as acts of mercy, as in Matthew, "I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in..." (Matt. 25:35, 36). And in other places the practice of charity is described as acts of mercy done to the poor, the afflicted, widows, and orphans.
Arcana Coelestia 5132:2

Since charity consists in having an affection for what is good, it also consists in feelings of mercy for those in distress. The good of charity holds such feelings within it because it comes down from the Lord's love towards the whole human race, a love which is "mercy" because the whole human race is in distress.

Arcana Coelestia 5480 

[M]ercy is love that is grieving.

Arcana Coelestia 6737

[W]hen people who are perceptive have feelings of compassion they know that they are being alerted by the Lord to offer help.

Blessed Are the Pure in Heart

see Doctrine of Life 84
Unless a person is interiorly sincere, just, faithful, and upright, he is insincere, unjust, unfaithful, and base....

see Doctrine of Life 84 

People are "perfect" when the Lord is in them. These are the people who are called: "The pure in heart, who shall see God and, Those who are perfect as is their Father in the heavens" (Matt. 5:8, 48).

Divine Providence 33

The conjunction of the Lord with a person in whom evils have been put away, is meant by these words of the Lord: "The pure in heart shall see God" (Matt. 5:8).

see Sacred Scripture 57 

Enlightenment is from the Lord alone, and exists with those who love truths because they are truths and make them of use for life. This the Lord teaches in Matthew: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8). These are people who are in enlightenment when they are reading the Word, and to whom the Word shines and is translucent.

Arcana Coelestia 3863:9

In Matthew, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for these will see God" (Matt. 5:8). Here it is quite evident that "seeing God" means believing in Him, and so seeing Him by faith, for people who possess faith, from faith see God.

Blessed Are the Peacemakers [Happy are those who do what the Lord teaches.]

New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 133
The real spiritual life of a person resides in a true conscience; for there his faith conjoined with charity.... Such people are in the tranquility of peace and in internal blessedness when they act in accordance with conscience; and that they are in disquiet and also in pain when they act against it. This pain is what is called the gnawing of conscience.
New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 236

Eternal happiness, which is also called heavenly joy, is imparted to those who are in love and faith in the Lord, from the Lord.

Heaven and Hell 228:3

That innocence and peace are together like good and its delight can be seen in little children, who, because they are in innocence, are also in peace, and because they are in peace are, in their whole nature, full of play. Yet the peace experienced by little children is external peace. Internal peace, like internal innocence, is possible only in wisdom, and therefore only in the conjunction of good and truth, since wisdom is from that conjunction. Heavenly or angelic peace is also possible with people who are in wisdom from the conjunction of good and truth, and who in consequence have a sense of contentment in God. Nevertheless, while they live in the world this peace lies hidden in their interiors, but it is revealed when they leave the body and enter heaven, for their interiors are then opened.

Blessed Are Those Who Are Persecuted for the Cause of Justice

True Christian Religion 96
"Blessed are they who endure persecution for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens" (Matt. 5:10). In the Word by "the righteous" those are meant who have lived in accordance with Divine order, since the Divine order is righteousness.... Righteousness is acquired only so far as a person practices righteousness. And this he does so far as he acts towards the neighbor from a love of what is righteous and true; and righteousness has its abode in the good itself or use itself which he performs. For the Lord says that every tree is known by its fruit.

Blessed Are You When They Revile and Persecute You...for My Sake

Apocalypse Explained 695:19

In the Evangelists: "Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say every evil word against you falsely," for Christ's sake; "rejoice and be exceeding glad, for your reward is great in the heavens; for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you" (Matt. 5:11, 12; Luke 6:22, 23). This is said of those who fight and conquer in temptations induced by evils, thus by hell. Temptations are symbolized by reproaching, persecuting, and saying an evil word falsely for Christ's sake, for temptations are assaults upon and infestations of truth and good by falsities and evils.... Rejoice and be exceeding glad, because great is your reward in the heavens, symbolizes heaven and its joy with those who are in the spiritual affection for truth, for such alone fight and conquer, because the Lord is in that affection, and resists and conquers for people in the combats of temptations.

Rejoice and Be Exceeding Glad, for Great Is Your Reward in Heaven

see Apocalypse Explained 695:2
"Reward" symbolizes salvation, and thus heaven, but it also means the delight, blessedness, and happiness that is in the love or affection of good and truth. This love or affection has in itself all joy of heart, which is called heavenly joy, and also heaven.... This is the "reward" that those will receive who do good and speak truth from the love or affection of good and truth, thus from the Lord, and in no wise from themselves. And as they do this from the Lord and not from themselves it is not a reward of merit but a reward of grace.
Arcana Coelestia 3956
Reward for people who have charity consists in their having the ability to do good, in being allowed to do it, and in the recipient's willing acceptance of it. This is the actual delight, indeed blessing, that is present with people with whom the affection that goes with charity exists.
 
True Christian Religion 440

To think about getting into heaven, and that good ought to be done for that reason, is not to regard reward as an end and to ascribe merit to works. For thus do those also think who love the neighbor as themselves and God above all things; so thinking from faith in the Lord's words, "That their reward should be great in the heavens" (Matt. 5:11, 12). Such do not trust to reward on the ground of their merit, but have faith in the promise from grace. With such the delight of doing good to the neighbor is their reward.... Those who are in this delight are unwilling to hear of merit, for they love to do, and in doing they perceive blessedness. They are sad when it is believed that they work for the sake of recompense. They are like those who do good to friends for the sake of friendship, to brethren for the sake of brotherhood, to wife and children for the sake of wife and children, and to their country for their country's sake - thus from friendship and love. Those who do acts of kindness also say and give evidence that they are doing this not on their own behalf, but on behalf of the others.