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28 But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem,[a] do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves[b] and for your children. 29 For this is certain:[c] The days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore children, and the breasts that never nursed!’[d] 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains,[e]Fall on us!and to the hills,Cover us![f]

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Footnotes

  1. Luke 23:28 sn The title Daughters of Jerusalem portrays these women mourning as representatives of the nation.
  2. Luke 23:28 sn Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves. Judgment now comes on the nation (see Luke 19:41-44) for this judgment of Jesus. Ironically, they mourn the wrong person—they should be mourning for themselves.
  3. Luke 23:29 tn Grk “For behold.”
  4. Luke 23:29 tn Grk “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the breasts that have not nursed!”sn Normally barrenness is a sign of judgment, because birth would be seen as a sign of blessing. The reversal of imagery indicates that something was badly wrong.
  5. Luke 23:30 sn The figure of crying out to the mountains ‘Fall on us!’ (appealing to creation itself to hide them from God’s wrath), means that a time will come when people will feel they are better off dead (Hos 10:8).
  6. Luke 23:30 sn An allusion to Hos 10:8 (cf. Rev 6:16).