# the meek shall inherit the earth

idiom · CEFR C1

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/the-meek-shall-inherit-the-earth
Updated: 2026-07-29

## Meaning

The gentle and humble will ultimately prevail over the powerful and arrogant.

## Examples

- Be patient — they say the meek shall inherit the earth.
- While the loud ones fought for credit, she just did the work, trusting that the meek shall inherit the earth.
- The quiet engineer who had spent years fixing everyone else's mistakes was finally promoted over his showier rivals, and someone in the office muttered, only half joking, that the meek shall inherit the earth after all.

## Origin

The line is one of the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:5, and Jesus is quoting an older promise from Psalm 37:11. In the original, meek means not weak but restrained — those who do not grasp or force, who wait rather than seize. The paradox is the point: the reward goes not to the strong who take what they want but to the patient and unassertive, an inversion of ordinary expectation that has kept the saying quotable for two thousand years. In English the meek shall inherit the earth is used both sincerely and drily — sometimes as genuine consolation for the overlooked, sometimes with a raised eyebrow, doubting that the gentle really do come out ahead.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.