What Did Jesus Really Mean by “Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth”?

What Jesus Actually Meant—and Why It Matters

*This is part 4 in a series of articles examining the Bible’s teaching on hell. If you have not read parts 1 and 2, I strongly suggest you do. There is important background information presented there, especially in part 1, regarding the various Hebrew and Greek words translated as “hell” in most English Bibles.*

Few phrases in the teaching of Jesus are more frequently misunderstood than “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” It is often assumed that this phrase describes the conscious, unending suffering of the damned. But that assumption collapses when examined in its biblical and linguistic context. A closer look at Scripture reveals that the phrase does not describe pain or torment at all. It certainly doesn’t illustrate regret. It describes anger—rage directed outward toward another being, not sorrow turned inward.

Understanding this changes how we read several of Jesus’ most severe warnings.

What Is Jesus Talking About When He Discusses "Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth"

Before defining the phrase itself, one clarification is necessary. Throughout the New Testament, two separate places are discussed that are, unfortunately, both equated with hell (both are translated as “hell” in many English Bibles). One is Hades, the place the Bible names in describing the intermediate state of the unsaved, where the dead who are not currently in heaven reside as they await final judgment (see Luke 16:19– 31; this place is synonymous with Sheol in the Old Testament). The other is Gehenna, or the Lake of Fire, the place that Jesus mentions repeatedly when discussing the final destination of the unrepentant after the final judgment.

Why is this relevant? It is often assumed that weeping and gnashing of teeth refers to the reactions of those who find themselves in Hades, the current abode of the unsaved dead. But it must be said that, of the seven times Jesus uses the phrase “weeping and gnashing of teeth” in the gospels, it is never associated with Hades. The phrase is not evoked when the intermediate state of the dead is being discussed.

Every time Jesus uses the phrase “weeping and gnashing of teeth,” it is a description of what happens after people are cast into the outer darkness or the fiery furnace— two more phrases used to refer to Gehenna, the final destination of the unsaved. The phrase uniformly describes the reaction of the unsaved after they’ve experienced final judgment. In contrast, in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16, the rich man who died and went to Hades appears to express remorse for his actions while alive on earth and concern for those who remain alive. An emotional posture which, we’ll soon see, is fundamentally different from weeping and gnashing teeth.

The Language of Rage

Throughout the Old Testament, gnashing of teeth is not the reaction of someone in agony. It is the reaction of someone who is furious. The Hebrew verb is חָרַק (ḥāraq), meaning to grind the teeth in rage against.[1] Gnashing teeth signals hostility, contempt, and violent opposition—often directed at God or His people. This usage is consistent across the Hebrew Scriptures.

Job describes an adversary who “gnashes his teeth” at him in hatred (Job 16:9). The Psalms portray enemies who gnash their teeth in malice, not misery (Ps. 35; 37; 112). In Lamentations 2, Israel’s enemies gnash their teeth in triumph as God’s judgment falls—within a chapter explicitly framed by the fierce anger of the Lord. The pattern is unmistakable: gnashing teeth is a demonstration of anger, rage, and obstinacy.

The New Testament does not redefine this meaning or diverge from it. It all but confirms it. In Acts 7, after Stephen rebukes Israel’s leaders, Luke tells us plainly what gnashing teeth means: “When they heard these things they were enraged, and they gnashed their teeth at him” (Acts 7:54). Once again, gnashing teeth is the physical expression of unrestrained rage. This is the emotional posture Scripture associates with the phrase.

The question is, how does this understanding inform the way we interpret passages where Jesus uses the expression?

Jesus’ Warnings Reconsidered

Every occurrence of weeping and gnashing of teeth in Jesus’ teaching shares two features: people who are experiencing exclusion from the kingdom and outrage at that exclusion. When Jesus warns that the “sons of the kingdom” will be cast into outer darkness while Gentiles feast with Abraham (Matt. 8:11–12), their reaction does not express remorse, but rather shattered entitlement. Those who assumed they belonged respond not with repentance and contrition, but with fury.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the Parable of the Wedding Feast (Matthew 22:1-14). A man who has been invited to partake in the king’s celebration attends the wedding of his son but refuses to wear the proper attire. When exposed and expelled from the event, he is not sorrowful. He is first silent, then enraged. His exclusion produces weeping and gnashing of teeth—the rage of self-righteous entitlement when confronted by reality.

Why This Matters

This matters because it confronts two false illusions: that people who reject God will be sent to hell with great sorrow and regret in their hearts, or that they will eventually soften, repent, or plead for mercy. Scripture presents a different picture. Final judgment will serve to reveal what people have already become. For those who reject Christ (whether openly or under a cloak of religious presumption), they will not meet judgment with repentance. They will meet it with anger toward God. No one will be sent to hell begging for mercy. They will be sent with their necks stiff and hearts hardened against their creator.

This includes not only those who reject Christ outright, but those who claim His name while refusing His lordship, like the man who attended the prince’s wedding without bothering to dress for the occasion. Jesus repeatedly warned that many would call Him “Lord” while living as though obedience were optional. Faith, in Scripture, is never abstract. It is embodied. What we believe is revealed by how we live.

Grace is not opposed to obedience.

Faith is not opposed to action.

They are two sides of the same reality.

For those who continually harden their hearts toward God, who continue to live in rebellion against Him, they will not respond with brokenness when the hour of reckoning arrives. They will respond with rage. That response, in Scripture, has a name: weeping and gnashing of teeth.

[1] Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, in Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 359.

Sources:

Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, in Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 359.

What Did Jesus Really Mean by “Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth”? - What the Bible Actually Says About Hell, Part 4

Blake Barbera is the founder and Lead Teaching Minister at That You May Know Him. He has been teaching the Bible for more than two decades, and has served the Church in various capacities during that time, including as a missionary and pastor.

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