Matthew 23:38

38 And now you're so desolate, nothing but a ghost town

Matthew 23:38 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 23:38

Behold your house is left unto you desolate.
] Signifying that the city in which they dwelt, where they had their ceiled houses, and stately palaces, would, in a little time, within the space of forty years, be destroyed, and become a desert; and the temple, formerly the house of God, but now only their's, and in which they trusted, would be abandoned by God, he would grant his presence no more in it; and the Messiah, the proprietor of it, and who was now in it, would then take his leave of it, and never more return to it; and that also should share the same fate as the city, and at the same time. Our Lord seems to have in view those passages in ( Jeremiah 12:7 ) ( 22:5 ) and which the Jewish F15 writers understood of the temple. The author of the apocryphal the second book of Esdras has much such an expression as this: ``Thus saith the Almighty Lord, Your house is desolate, I will cast you out as the wind doth stubble.'' (2 Esdras 1:33)


FOOTNOTES:

F15 Targum & Kimchi in Jer. xii. 7.

Matthew 23:38 In-Context

36 All this, I'm telling you, is coming down on you, on your generation
37 "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Murderer of prophets! Killer of the ones who brought you God's news! How often I've ached to embrace your children, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn't let me.
38 And now you're so desolate, nothing but a ghost town
39 What is there left to say? Only this: I'm out of here soon. The next time you see me you'll say, 'Oh, God has blessed him! He's come, bringing God's rule!'"
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.