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Luk 21:24. Ἔσται πατουμένη) This conveys the idea of something more than πατηθήσεται, shall be trodden down; it shall be (and continue) in a trodden down state, as also in a desecrated state: comp. note on 1Ti 1:9. The Derivation and sense of the old name of the city, Jebus, is in consonance with this.[227] So in Rev 11:2, et seqq., “They shall tread under foot the holy city forty and two months;” although there the angel is speaking of a certain one time of its being trodden under foot, and that a very remarkable one; whereas in Luke the Lord is speaking of all the times of its being so trodden. In fact, in whatever way you explain the “forty and two months,” Jerusalem has been already, for a longer period than that, trodden down by the Romans, the Persians, the Saracens, the Franks, the Turks; and it shall continue hereafter to be trodden down until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Moreover “the times of the Gentiles” are the times appointed to the Gentiles wherein they are to be permitted to tread down the city: and these times shall be terminated upon the conversion of the Gentiles being most fully consummated: Rom 11:25 [“Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved”]; Rev 15:4 [“All nations shall come and worship before Thee”]; for certainly the Gentiles, whilst treading down Jerusalem, are themselves meanwhile unbelievers. The expression, “the times of the Gentiles,” is used as “the time of figs,” and “the time of the dead:” Mar 11:13; Rev 11:18. It is not to be inferred from this that the temple and its worship of shadowy types is going to be restored; but yet there will be many at that time there, as indeed even at the present time there are some to be found, who are worshippers bearing the Christian name, and there shall be many too of these belonging to the people of Israel: and it is in the same last time that God and Magog shall make this assault: Rev 20:9. Ἄχρι, until, forms a tacit limitation in the verses. From this verse to Luk 21:27, are summarily comprehended all the times which are about to follow the destruction of the city down to the termination of all things.-καιροὶ ἐθνῶν) the times of the Gentiles, i.e. which are peculiarly their own. Αὐτῶν is not the expression used, but the term ἘΘΝῶΝ, of the Gentiles, is repeated, in order to show the correspondence of the event with the prediction. The article is not added. The times of Israel, which would have continued uninterruptedly, if Israel had been obedient, Psa 81:13-16, are interrupted by times of Gentiles. These latter times had their own intervals of suspension, as in the Fourth and Twelfth centuries. The plural, καιροί, is therefore used. A certain time of the Gentiles was fulfilled when Constantine was emperor; and then the treading down of Jerusalem abated; but not lastingly. The times during which the Christians held Jerusalem were brief intervals, if you compare them with the times in which the [unconverted] Gentiles held the city.
[227] Jdg 19:10, Jebus = one who treads under foot.-E. and T.