Luke 13:35

Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:31-35 Christ, in calling Herod a fox, gave him his true character. The greatest of men were accountable to God, therefore it became him to call this proud king by his own name; but it is not an example for us. I know, said our Lord, that I must die very shortly; when I die, I shall be perfected, I shall have completed my undertaking. It is good for us to look upon the time we have before us as but little, that we may thereby be quickened to do the work of the day in its day. The wickedness of persons and places which more than others profess religion and relation to God, especially displeases and grieves the Lord Jesus. The judgment of the great day will convince unbelievers; but let us learn thankfully to welcome, and to profit by all who come in the name of the Lord, to call us to partake of his great salvation.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the notes at Matthew 23:37-39.

From the message which Jesus sent to Herod we may learn:

1. That our lives are safe in the hands of God, and that wicked people can do no more to injure us than he shall permit. Compare John 19:11.

2. That we "should" go on fearlessly in doing our duty, and especially if we are doing good. We should not regard the threats of people. God is to be obeyed; and even if obedience should involve us in difficulty and trials, still we should not hesitate to commit our cause to God and go forward.

3. We should be on our guard against crafty and unprincipled people. They often "profess" to seek our good when they are only plotting our ruin. Even those professedly coming from our enemies to caution us are often also our enemies, and are secretly plotting our ruin or endeavoring to prevent our doing good.

4. We see here the nature of religion. It shrinks at nothing which is duty. It goes forward trusting in God. It comes out boldly and faces the world. And,

5. How beautiful and consistent is the example of Christ! How "wise" was he to detect the arts of his foes! how "fearless" in going forward, in spite of all their machinations, to do what God had appointed for him to do!

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

34, 35. O Jerusalem, &c.—(See on [1665]Mt 23:37; [1666]Mt 23:39).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 13:34"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Behold, your house is left unto you desolate,.... That is, would be in a little time, both city and temple; See Gill on Matthew 23:38.

and verily I say unto you; affirm in the strongest manner:

ye shall not see me; the Arabic version adds, "from henceforth", and so some copies, as in Matthew 23:39 and so the Ethiopic version, "from this time"; that he spoke these words, whether in Galilee, or in the temple:

until the time come; or "until he shall come", meaning himself, and his second coming:

when ye shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; not they themselves in person, but their posterity, who will be converted in the latter day: and shall acknowledge the Messiah, the blessed of the Lord, who will come in his name, to judge the world in righteousness: or else the meaning is, that when Christ shall come a second time, and every eye shall see him, these Jews, among the rest, shall behold him, whom they have pierced, and mourn; and wish themselves among those, that shall receive him with joyful acclamations; and however, will be obliged to own him as the Messiah, and to confess that he comes in the name, and with the authority of the Lord, and that he is blessed for evermore.

Geneva Study Bible

Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

35. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate] The authenticity of the word ‘desolate’ is very doubtful, as it is omitted in א, A, B, K, L, &c. The words therefore mean ‘The Shechinah has vanished from you now (Ezekiel 10:19; Ezekiel 11:23). The house is now yours, not God’s; and because yours therefore a cave of brigands.’ If the word ‘desolate’ be genuine, it may allude to Daniel 9:27 and “the desolating wing of abomination,” as well as to other prophecies, Leviticus 26:31; Micah 3:12;

Isaiah 5:5-6. There is a remarkable parallel in 2Es 1:30-33, “I gathered you together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings: but now, what shall I do unto you? I will cast you out from my face. ...Thus saith the Almighty Lord, your house is desolate, I will cast you out as the wind doth stubble.”

Ye shall not see me] “Their senses are still blinded. The veil of the Talmud that hangs over their eyes is twice as heavy as the veil of Moses.” Van Oosterzee.

until the time come when ye shall say] It is a most frivolous interpretation of these words to make them merely refer to the Hosannas of Palm Sunday (Luke 19:38) as though they meant, ‘I shall not visit Jerusalem till the day of my humble triumph.’ They clearly refer to the future and final penitence of Israel. The ‘perfecting’ of Jesus would be His death, and then once again He would return as “the Coming One.” Hosea 3:4-5; Psalm 118:26. Here, as in so many other stern passages of Scripture, in the Valley of Achor is opened a door of Hope, for the phrase implies ‘till the time comes as come it will’ (Zechariah 12; Romans 11).

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 13:35. Ἰδοὺ ἀφίεται ὑμῖν ὁ οἶκος ὑμῶν) Many have added ἔρημος from Matthew.[137] In Luke the Saviour is represented as having said these words in Galilee: nor did He subsequently afford the people of Jerusalem the opportunity of seeing Him, until, after the resurrection of Lazarus, at His own royal entry, they said, Blessed is He who cometh in the name of the Lord.[138] Therefore, from the time of this declaration and prelude up to the time of that entry of His, He left their house to them,[139] though not yet however ‘desolate’ [therefore the ἜΡΗΜΟΝ here is spurious]. But in Matthew, after His royal entry, going out from the temple for the last time, He solemnly declared their house to be left desolate.[140] [We have been permitted to observe the same nice distinction in the words respectively used, between Luke 11:49, and Matthew 23:34 : see the notes on both passages.—Harm., p. 407.]—λέγω δὲ ὑμῖν, but I say unto you) He speaks sternly, and yet mercifully, as we have just now remarked. Nay, even in Matthew 23:39, the ἀμὴν, verily, is wanting, by the insertion of which in Luke some have intensified the sternness of His denunciation.[141] The particle, δὲ, but, opposes to one another the present desolation of their abandoned house, and their acclamations so soon about to follow.

[137] AB Vulg. Orig. 3,188b; 642d, omit ἔρημος. But Dabc Iren. and Rec. Text, add ἔρημος.—ED. and TRANSL.

[138] This can only be the immediate temporary fulfilment of His prophecy. For that it is not the full and exhaustive fulfilment of it is plain from the fact, that presently after they had used the words, “Blessed is He,” etc., ch. Luke 19:38, He “wept over the city,” Luke 11:41-44, and denied that it even then “knew the time of its visitation” by Him in mercy. Therefore the time is yet future when the Jews, according to Psalm 118:22; Psalm 118:26, Zechariah 4:7; Zechariah 12:10, shall recognise Him in the character (= name) of Lord.—ED. and TRANSL.

[139] I am confidently of opinion that the house in this passage is the same as that of which He speaks in Matthew 23:38, though at a different time. Moreover, that the temple is meant in the passage of Matthew, is evident from Matthew 24:1, where, immediately after that most solemn declaration, the Saviour is said to have departed from the temple. What need, then, could He have had of the demonstrative οὖτος in order to point out that house or temple, seeing that He spake these words in the temple itself? Truly the article ὁ, in such a case, was more than sufficient. I moreover will most freely grant, that the Jews never called the temple their own house, but always the house of the Lord (although S. R. D. S. F. Lorenz, in his diss. de Induratione Israelis ante finem dierum finiendâ, Argent. 1771, p. 50, shows the contrary to be the fact). But yet, seeing that He did not hesitate to call the temple σπήλαιον λῃστῶν (ch. Luke 19:46), need we wonder that He, in order to express indignation, might have called it in this passage “the house of the Jews?” Never did the Jewish people, as far as I know, call themselves the people of Moses: and yet the Lord, when angry with the people, says to Moses, “Thy people have corrupted themselves,” Exodus 32:7. Comp. by all means Jeremiah 7:4; Jeremiah 7:8, where the nomenclature [which they arrogated to themselves]. The temple of the Lord, is reproved as false: Comp. Hosea 1:9, לֹא עַמִּוי, not—my people and Romans 2:28, not a Jew; comp. with this Revelation 3:9, etc. I make these remarks by the way of an answer to Ernesti Bibl. Theol. Tom. x. p. 184, et seqq.—E. B.

[140] Matthew 23:38, BL Memph. Orig. 3,167cd omit ἔρημος. But both internal probability for the reason given by Beng., and the weighty authorities, Dabcd Vulg. Orig. Iren. and Cypr. support it.—ED. and TRANSL.

[141] ABDabc Vulg. omit ἀμὴν. Rec. Text, without any primary authority, inserts it.—ED. and TRANSL.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 35. - Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. The older authorities omit "desolate." The sentence will then read, "your house is left unto you." Their house from henceforth, not his. Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord. "Ye shall not see me." Van Oosterzee comments here: "Their senses are still blinded. The veil of the Talmud that hangs over their eyes is twice as heavy as the veil of Moses." The promise which concludes this saying of the Master can only refer to the far future, to the day of the penitence of Israel. It harmonizes with the voice of the older prophets, and tells us that the day will surely come when the people shall look on him whom they pierced, and shall mourn. But that mourning will be turned speedily into joy.



Luke 13:35