23 But woe to them that are with child and to them who give suck in those days, for there shall be great distress upon the land and wrath upon this people.
for behold, days are coming in which they will say, Blessed [are] the barren, and wombs that have not borne, and breasts that have not given suck.
forbidding us to speak to the nations that they may be saved, that they may fill up their sins always: but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost.
The eye of the tender and luxurious woman in thy midst who would not attempt to set the sole of her foot upon the ground from luxuriousness and from tenderness, shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and her son, and her daughter, because of her afterbirth which hath come out between her feet, and her children whom she shall bear; for she shall secretly eat them for want of everything in the siege and in the straitness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.
The hands of pitiful women have boiled their own children: they were their meat in the ruin of the daughter of my people.
They say to him, He will miserably destroy those evil [men], and let out the vineyard to other husbandmen, who shall render him the fruits in their seasons.
But woe to those that are with child, and those that give suck in those days.
But woe to those that are with child and to those that give suck in those days!
for days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall make a palisaded mound about thee, and shall close thee around, and keep thee in on every side,
nor by blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, has entered in once for all into the [holy of] holies, having found an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and a heifer's ashes sprinkling the defiled, sanctifies for the purity of the flesh, how much rather shall the blood of the Christ, who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God, purify your conscience from dead works to worship [the] living God? And for this reason he is mediator of a new covenant, so that, death having taken place for redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, the called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. (For where [there is] a testament, the death of the testator must needs come in. For a testament [is] of force when men are dead, since it is in no way of force while the testator is alive.)
For where we sin wilfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains any sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and heat of fire about to devour the adversaries. Any one that has disregarded Moses' law dies without mercy on [the testimony of] two or three witnesses: of how much worse punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and esteemed the blood of the covenant, whereby he has been sanctified, common, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him that said, To me [belongs] vengeance; *I* will recompense, saith the Lord: and again, The Lord shall judge his people. [It is] a fearful thing falling into [the] hands of [the] living God.
But of doing good and communicating [of your substance] be not forgetful, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Go to now, ye rich, weep, howling over your miseries that [are] coming upon [you].
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Luke 21
Commentary on Luke 21 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 21
In this chapter we have,
Luk 21:1-4
This short passage of story we had before in Mark. It is thus recorded twice, to teach us,
Luk 21:5-19
See here,
Luk 21:20-28
Having given them an idea of the times for about thirty-eight years next ensuing, he here comes to show them what all those things would issue in at last, namely, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the utter dispersion of the Jewish nation, which would be a little day of judgment, a type and figure of Christ's second coming, which was not so fully spoken of here as in the parallel place (Mt. 24), yet glanced at; for the destruction of Jerusalem would be as it were the destruction of the world to those whose hearts were bound up in it.
Luk 21:29-38
Here, in the close of this discourse,