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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Luke 23:27 - 23:31
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Luk_23:27-31
27And following Him was a large crowd of the people, and of women who were mourning and lamenting Him. 28But Jesus turning to them said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.' 30Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us,' and to the hills, 'Cover us.' 31For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?"
Luk_23:27-31 This account is found only in Luke, who took special note of Jesus' conversations with women.
Luk_23:27 "And following Him was a large crowd of the people" This probably refers to the pilgrims who were just awakening and realizing what had taken place in the early morning hours.
▣ "women who were mourning and lamenting Him" This seems to refer to the women of Jerusalem, not to the women who accompanied the disciples (cf. Luk_23:49; Luk_23:55-56; Luk_18:13) because Jesus calls then "daughters of Jerusalem" (cf. Luk_23:28).
Luk_23:28 "stop weeping for Me" This is a present active imperative with the negative particle, which usually denotes stopping an act in process.
▣ "but weep for yourselves and for your children" This is a present active imperative. It probably refers to the predicted fall of Jerusalem in a.d. 70 (cf. Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21). Because of the mob's self-curse in Mat_27:25, it may refer to the spiritual and eschatological consequences of unbelief.
Luk_23:29 "'For behold, the days are coming’" This refers to the destruction of Jerusalem in a.d. 70 by Titus, but it may also foreshadow the eschatological Second Coming of Jesus in judgment.
▣ "Blessed are the barren" This was strong irony for these Jewish women, for whom barrenness was seen as a curse from God.
Luk_23:30 This is a quote from Hos_10:8 addressed to rebellious Israel or perhaps an allusion to Isa_2:19, which is a context of judgment. This OT text is also quoted in Rev_6:16.
Luk_23:31 This apparently is a common proverb that in essence means "if they (i.e., Roman authorities) can treat me like this when I am innocent, then what will they do to you?"
▣ "if" This is a first class conditional sentence, which is assumed to be true frm the author's perspective or for his/her literary purposes.