John Calvin Commentary Matthew 5:6

"Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." — Matthew 5:6 (ASV)

Happy are they who hunger. To hunger and thirst is here, I think, used as a figurative expression³⁶⁶ and means to suffer poverty, to lack the necessities of life, and even to be defrauded of one's right.

Matthew says, who thirst after righteousness, and thus makes one class stand for all the rest. He represents more strongly the unworthy treatment they have received when he says that, despite their anxiety and groans, they desire nothing but what is proper.

“Happy are they who, though their wishes are so moderate that they desire nothing to be granted to them but what is reasonable, are yet in a languishing condition, like persons who are famishing with hunger.”

Though their distressing anxiety exposes them to the ridicule of others, it is nevertheless a certain preparation for happiness: for eventually they shall be satisfied. God will one day listen to their groans and satisfy their just desires, for to Him, as we learn from the song of the Virgin, it belongs to fill the hungry with good things (Luke 1:53).

³⁶⁶ “Par une figure qu'on appelle Synecdoche;” —— “by a figure which is called by a figure which is called Synecdoche,” in which a part is put for the whole.in which a part is put for the whole.