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Luk 23:31. Ὅτι, For) By this adage Jesus either shows why He Himself desires the daughters of Jerusalem to weep; or rather brings before us the persons who desire to be overwhelmed beneath the mountains, stating the grounds of their terror. Therefore we may take the green tree as typifying the young, strong, and healthy: the dry tree (comp. Isa 56:3, “Neither let the eunuch say, Behold I am a dry tree;” Eze 21:3 [Eze 20:47], Eze 31:3,[257] etc.), the old, feeble, and barren. A remarkable passage occurs in Joseph., B. vi. de B. J. ch. 44. f 968, ed Lips. “When the soldiers were wearied out in killing the Jews, and a great multitude seemed still to be left surviving, Cæsar ordered that those alone who were armed and offered resistance should be slain, and that the rest should be made captives. But the soldiers μετὰ (the sense requires κατὰ) τῶν παρηγγελμένων, contrary to what had been commanded, slew the old and feeble (ΤΟΥΣ ΑΣΘΕΝΕΙΣ), (ΤΟ Δʼ ΑΚΜΑΖΟΝ), but shut up in confinement those who were vigorous and serviceable,” etc. Therefore in this crowning calamity they began debating with one another, as usually happens, which was the more miserable. Tending to the same view of the words is the fact, that ξύλον denotes either a tree that is standing, or the wood of a tree that has been cut, which latter also is wont to be either moist (for so Erasmus renders ὑγρὸν, humidum, still retaining the sap) or else dry. Elsewhere indeed Christ is the tree of life, perfect in its verdure: men, whilst outside of Him, are dry wood. See Joh 15:1-2. But His suffering (punishment) was truly more severe than that of any Jew, after the city was taken.
[257] Where the Assyrian is called “a cedar in Lebanon.” Comp. Luk 17:24, “I the Lord have dried up the green tree, and made the dry tree to flourish.”-E. and T.