Luke 19:43

19:43-44 Jesus foretold the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70. The Jewish historian Josephus describes the horrific suffering of the inhabitants of Jerusalem during the Roman siege (War 5.1.1–7.1.1). • will not leave a single stone in place: This is an image of total devastation.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk 19:43. Ἡμέραι) days, which shall be many: because thou dost not regard the one day. See Luk 19:42.—καὶ, καὶ, καὶ, and, and, and) Three degrees of the straits to which they would be reduced.—συνέξουσι, keep thee in, press hard upon) Titus built a wall round the city, and thereby precluded the possibility of egress.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 19:43 . ὅτι , for, because, introducing a prophetic picture of coming ruin, either to explain the εἰ ἔγνως = what you would have escaped had you but known; or to substantiate the assertion of judicial blindness = no hope of your seeing now; your fate sealed; judgment days will surely come ( ἥξουσιν ἡμέραι ). Then follows an awful picture of these judgment days in a series of clauses connected by a fivefold καὶ , the first being = when. The description recalls Isa 29:3 so closely that the use of such definite phrases before the event is quite conceivable, although many critics think the prophecy so certainly ex eventu as to use it for fixing the date of the Gospel. χάρακα , a palisade (here only in N.T.). Titus did erect a palisaded mound around Jerusalem, and, after it was destroyed by the Jews in a sortie, he built a wall.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

a trench--a rampart; first of wood, and when this was burnt, a built wall, four miles in circuit, built in three days--so determined were they. This "cut off all hope of escape," and consigned the city to unparalleled horrors. (See JOSEPHUS, Wars of the Jews, 6.2; 12.3,4.) All here predicted was with dreadful literally fulfilled.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 43. Cast a trench about thee] This was literally fulfilled when this city was besieged by Titus. Josephus gives a very particular account of the building of this wall, which he says was effected in three days, though it was not less than thirty-nine furlongs in circumference; and that, when this wall and trench were completed, the Jews were so enclosed on every side that no person could escape out of the city, and no provision could be brought in, so that they were reduced to the most terrible distress by the famine which ensued. The whole account is well worth the reader's attention. See Josephus, War, book v. chap. xxii. sec. 1, 2, 3.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(43) The days shall come upon thee. We again come upon a cluster of words peculiar, as far as the New Testament is concerned, to St. Luke, and belonging to the higher forms of historical composition.

Shall cast a trench about thee.—The Greek substantive means primarily a stake, then the “stockade” or “palisade” by which the camp of a besieging army was defended, then the earth-work upon which the stockade was fixed. In the latter case, of course, a trench was implied, but the word meant the embankment rather than the excavation. The better MSS. give for “cast” a verb which more distinctly conveys the idea of an encampment.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

43. the days] often used of troublous times, like the Latin tempora.

shall cast a trench about thee] Rather, shall surround thee with a palisade, Isa_29:3-4; Isa_37:33, LXX. Literally fulfilled forty years afterwards at the siege of Jerusalem, when Titus surrounded the city first with a palisaded mound (vallum and agger), and then with a wall of masonry.

keep thee in on every side] The blockade established was so terribly rigid that myriads of the Jews perished of starvation.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he went into the temple,.... Being come into the city, he alighted from the colt he rode on, and having committed it to the care of a proper person to return it to the owner, he went up directly to the temple, of which he was the Lord and proprietor, and where he had some work to do the few days he had to live.

And began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; that traded in sheep, and oxen, and doves; see Joh 2:15. The Ethiopic version adds here, as there, "and overthrew, the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves".

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

43 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,

Ver. 43. For the days shall come] God hath his days for vengeance, as man hath his day for repentance. There is a prime of every man’s life and of every man’s ministry. The Levite lingered so long that he lost his concubine, she came short home; so doth many a man’s soul for like reason.

Shall cast a trench about thee] Because, like the wild ass, thou wouldest not otherwise be tamed and kept within compass of God’s commandments.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And compass thee, &c. Christ’s prophecy is a literal description of what happened to Jerusalem, under Titus. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

It is a plain prophecy of the final destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies, which came to pass within less than forty years after. The cause of that dreadful judgment is assigned,

because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. God’s visitations are either of wrath or mercy; of wrath, Exo 32:34; Lev 26:16; Jer 15:3; of mercy, Jer 29:10. It is plain that our Saviour useth the term here in the latter, not the former sense; and that by God’s visitation of this people here, is meant his visiting them with his prophets, by John the Baptist, and by himself. Their not knowing of it (here intended) was their not making use of it, not receiving and embracing the gospel. The contempt of the gospel is the great, cause of all those miseries which come upon people in this life, or shall come upon them in that life which is to come.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

43. The days shall come—We have here one of the most striking predictions ever uttered.

A trench—A ridge or low wall of earthworks, flung up from a ditch made by the excavation.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee around - All this was exactly performed by Titus, the Roman general.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Here we have a prophetical prediction of the total and final destruction of the city of Jerusalem by the Roman armies, who begirt the city round, burnt the temple, starved the people, and brought such ruin and destruction upon the place, as no history could ever parallel: the reason is assigned, because they knew not the time of their visitation; that is, the time when God visited them with his gospel, first by the ministry of John, then by the preaching of Christ himself, and afterwards by his disciples and apostles.

Hence learn,

1. That when God gives his gospel to a people, he gives that people a merciful and a gracious visitation.

2. That for a people not to know, but to neglect the time of their gracious visitation, is a God-provoking, and a wrath-procuring sin: Because thou knowest not the time of thy visitation, therefore the time shall come, that thine enemies shall lay thee even with the ground, and not leave one stone upon another; which, history tells us, was literally fulfilled, when Turnus Rufus, with his plough, ploughed up the very foundation stones upon which the temple stood. Lord, how has sin laid the foundation of ruin in the most flourishing cities and kingdoms! Here we have a prophetical prediction of the total and final destruction of the city of Jerusalem by the Roman armies, who begirt the city round, burnt the temple, starved the people, and brought such ruin and destruction upon the place, as no history could ever parallel: the reason is assigned, because they knew not the time of their visitation; that is, the time when God visited them with his gospel, first by the ministry of John, then by the preaching of Christ himself, and afterwards by his disciples and apostles.

Hence learn,

1. That when God gives his gospel to a people, he gives that people a merciful and a gracious visitation.

2. That for a people not to know, but to neglect the time of their gracious visitation, is a God-provoking, and a wrath-procuring sin: Because thou knowest not the time of thy visitation, therefore the time shall come, that thine enemies shall lay thee even with the ground, and not leave one stone upon another; which, history tells us, was literally fulfilled, when Turnus Rufus, with his plough, ploughed up the very foundation stones upon which the temple stood. Lord, how has sin laid the foundation of ruin in the most flourishing cities and kingdoms!

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Connecting Statement:

Jesus continues speaking.

For

What follows is the reason for Jesus' sadness.

the days will come upon you when your enemies

This indicates that they will experience difficult times. Some languages do not talk about time "coming." AT: "in the future these things will happen to you: Your enemies" or "soon you will endure troublesome times. Your enemies"

you ... your

The word "you" is singular because Jesus is speaking to the city as he would to a woman. But if this would be unnatural in your language, you could use a plural form of "you" to refer to the people of the city. (See: Forms of You and Apostrophe)

barricade

This refers to a wall to keep the people from getting out of the city.

They will strike you down to the ground and your children with you

Jesus is speaking to the people of the city as if he were speaking to the city itself as he would speak to a woman. He speaks of the people who live in the city as if they are the woman's children, and thus the city's children. To strike down a city is to destroy its walls and buildings, and to strike down its children is to kill those who live in it. AT: "They will completely destroy you and kill all who live in you" or "They will completely destroy your city and kill all of you" (See: Apostrophe)

They will not leave one stone upon another

"They will not leave any of the stones in place." This is a hyperbole to express that the enemies will completely destroy the city, which is built of stones. (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)

you did not recognize it

"you did not acknowledge"

translationWords

adversary

God

save

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

43. ἡμέραι. Often used of troublous times, like the Latin tempora.

περιβαλοῦσιν … χάρακά σοι. ‘Shall surround thee with a palisade,’ Isa 29:3-4; Isa 37:33, LXX[336] χάραξ in Polybius means a palisaded mound. Literally fulfilled forty years afterwards at the siege of Jerusalem, when Titus surrounded the city first with a palisaded mound (vallum and agger), and then with a wall of masonry. Hence the ‘pale’ of Wyclif and the ‘mound’ of Tyndale were better than the ‘trench’ of the A.V[337], Genevan, and Rhemish. The Jews in one of their furious sorties destroyed this χάραξ, and then Titus built the wall.

[336] LXX. Septuagint.

[337] A.V. Authorised Version.

συνέξουσίν σε πάντοθεν. The blockade established was so terribly rigid that myriads of the Jews perished of starvation.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

43.] ὅτι declares, not ‘the things hidden from thine eyes,’ so that it should be rendered, ‘namely, that the days shall come,’ &c.: but the awful reason which there was for the fervent wish just expressed—for, or because.

χάρακα, a mound with palisades. The account of its being built is in Jos. B. J. v. 6. 2. When the Jews destroyed this, Titus built a wall round them (ib. 12. 2),—see Isa 29:2, Isa 29:3, Isa 29:4,—to which our Lord here tacitly refers.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

43. ὅτι ἥξουσιν ἡμέραι. “Because days will come”; not “the days” (AV. RV.): see on 5:35 and 17:22. Dies multi, quia unum diem non observas (Beng.). The ὅτι probably depends upon εἰ επγνως “Would that thou hadst known in time; because the consequences (now inevitable) of not knowing are terrible.” Or ὅτι may introduce the explanation of νῦν δὲ ἐκρύβη: “They are bid from thine eyes, because the very reverse of peace will certainly come upon thee.” But in any case ὅτι is “because, for,” not “that.” For the constr. see Bless, Gr. p. 256.

It is not easy to decide between παρεμβαλοῦσιν (א C* L), which Tisch. and WH. prefer, and περιβαλοῦσιν (TR. with A B etc.). D has καὶ βαλοῦσιν ἐπὶ σέ. In LXX παρεμβάλλειν is freq. for “to encamp”: Num 1:50, Num 1:2:17, Num 1:27, Num 1:3:38, Num 1:33:10, Num 1:11, Num 1:12, Num 1:13, etc. Here it would mean “cast up in front” or “plant in beside,” rather than “surround.” In Vulg., through carelessness on Jerome’s part, circumdabunt is used to translate both περιβαλοῦσιν and περικυκλώσουσιν, although earlier Lat. texts distinguish. Similarly we have pressura for both ἀναγκη (21:23) and συνοχή (21:25). For a converse inaccuracy see on 24:14.

Χάρακα. From meaning a single stake (vallus), χάραξ comes mean, not only a “palisade” (vallum) but a “rampart” or “palisaded mound” (vallum and agger combined). This is its meaning here: comp. Isa 37:33; Eze 4:2, 26:8; Jos. Vita, xliii. In Eze 4:2 we have περιβαλεῖς ἐπʼ αὐτὴν χάρακα “Pale” (Wic.), “rampars” (Gen.), and “bank” (Tyn. Cov. RV.) are all preferable to “trench” (Rhem. AV.). It is said that these details show that the prophecy has been re-worded to fit the event more precisely and that therefore this Gospel was written after a.d. 70. The argument is precarious, although the conclusion is probable. At any rate it is worthy of note that neither here nor elsewhere does Lk. call attention to the fulfilment of the prophecy, as he does in the case of Agabus (Act 11:28). To those who assume that Jesus was unable to foresee the siege of Jerusalem, the amount of detail in the prediction is not of much moment. But it is not logical to maintain that Jesus could foresee the siege, but could not have foreseen these details; or to maintain that He would make known the coming siege, but would not make known the details. What is there in these details which is not common to all sieges? Given the siege, any one might add them. Il n’est pas nécessaire pour cela d’etre prophète (Godet). Moreover it is possible that Jesus is freely reproducing Isa 29:3: καὶ κυκλώσω ἐπὶ σέ, καὶ βαλῶ ἐπὶ σὲ χάρακα, καὶ θήσω περὶ σὲ πύργους. In both cases note the solemn effect of the simple coordination of sentences with καί: here we have καί five times. Note also the impressive repetition of the pronoun: we have σου, σοι, or σε ten times in two verses. For the fulfilment of this prophecy see Jos. B. J. v. 6. 2, 12. 2. The Jews burnt the palisade, and then Titus replaced it with a wall. See Hastings, D.B. i. p. 30.

συνέξουσίν σε πάντοθεν. One of Lk.’s favourite verbs: 4:38, 8:37, 45, 12:50, 22:63; Act 7:57, Act 18:5, Act 28:8. It is possibly medical (Hobart, p. 3). The adv. occurs elsewhere in N.T. in Mar 1:45 and Heb 9:4 only: it is rare in LXX. This “keeping in on every side” was so severe that thousands died of famine (Jos. B. J. v. 12. 3, vi. 1. 1).

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A trench [χαρακα] . Rev., correctly, as Tynd., a bank. Only here in New Testament. The word literally means a pointed stake, used in fortifying the intrenchments of a camp, and thence the palisade itself. In fortifying a camp or besieging a city, a ditch was dug round the entire circuit, and the earth from it thrown up into a wall, upon which sharp stakes were fixed. Every Roman soldier carried three or four of these stakes on the march. Wyc., with pale.

Keep thee in [συνεξουσιν] . See on ch. Luk 4:38.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.