Luke 19:43-45 New English Translation

⁴³For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build^[a] an embankment^[b] against you and surround you and close in on you from every side. ⁴⁴They will demolish you^[c]—you and your children within your walls^[d]—and they will not leave within you one stone^[e] on top of another,^[f] because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”^[g]

Cleansing the Temple

⁴⁵Then^[h] Jesus^[i] entered the temple courts^[j] and began to drive out those who were selling things there,^[k]

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Footnotes

Luke 19:43 sn Jesus now predicted the events that would be fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem in a.d. 70. The details of the siege have led some to see Luke writing this after Jerusalem’s fall, but the language of the verse is like God’s exilic judgment for covenant unfaithfulness (Hab 2:8; Jer 6:6, 14; 8:13-22; 9:1; Ezek 4:2; 26:8; Isa 29:1-4). Specific details are lacking and the procedures described (build an embankment against you) were standard Roman military tactics.
Luke 19:43 sn An embankment refers to either wooden barricades or earthworks, or a combination of the two.
Luke 19:44 tn Grk “They will raze you to the ground.” sn The singular pronoun you refers to the city of Jerusalem personified.
Luke 19:44 tn Grk “your children within you.” The phrase “[your] walls” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that the city of Jerusalem, metaphorically pictured as an individual, is spoken of here.
Luke 19:44 sn (Not) one stone on top of another is an idiom for total destruction.
Luke 19:44 tn Grk “leave stone on stone.”
Luke 19:44 tn Grk “the time of your visitation.” To clarify what this refers to, the words “from God” are supplied at the end of the verse, although they do not occur in the Greek text.sn You did not recognize the time of your visitation refers to the time God came to visit them. They had missed the Messiah; see Luke 1:68-79.
Luke 19:45 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
Luke 19:45 tn Grk “he.”
Luke 19:45 tn Grk “the temple” (also in v. 47).sn The merchants (those who were selling things there) would have been located in the Court of the Gentiles.
Luke 19:45 sn Matthew (21:12-27), Mark (11:15-19) and Luke (here, 19:45-46) record this incident of the temple cleansing at the end of Jesus’ ministry. John (2:13-16) records a cleansing of the temple at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. See the note on the word temple courts in John 2:14 for a discussion of the relationship of these accounts to one another.

New English Translation (NET)