Luke 23:30-32 New English Translation
30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains,[a] ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’[b] 31 For if such things are done[c] when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”[d]
32 Two other criminals[e] were also led away to be executed with him.
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- 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).
- Luke 23:30 sn An allusion to Hos 10:8 (cf. Rev 6:16).
- Luke 23:31 tn Grk “if they do such things.” The plural subject here is indefinite, so the active voice has been translated as a passive (see ExSyn 402).
- Luke 23:31 sn The figure of the green wood and the dry has been variously understood. Most likely the picture compares the judgment on Jesus as the green (living) wood to the worse judgment that will surely come for the dry (dead) wood of the nation.
- Luke 23:32 tc The text reads either “two other criminals” or “others, two criminals.” The first reading (found in P75 א B) could be read as describing Jesus as a criminal, while the second (found in A C D L W Θ Ψ 070 0250 ƒ1,13 33 M) looks like an attempt to prevent this identification. The first reading, more difficult to explain from the other, is likely autographic.sn Jesus is numbered among the criminals (see Isa 53:12 and Luke 22:37).
New English Translation (NET)
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