Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 12:54-56

"And he said to the multitudes also, When ye see a cloud rising in the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it cometh to pass. And when [ye see] a south wind blowing, ye say, There will be a scorching heat; and it cometh to pass. Ye hypocrites, ye know how to interpret the face of the earth and the heaven; but how is it that ye know not how to interpret this time?" — Luke 12:54-56 (ASV)

When you see a cloud rise out of the west.—See Notes on Matthew 16:2. The differences in form are, however, noticeable enough to suggest the impression here also of similar teaching at a different time. In Matthew, the words come as an answer to the demand for a sign, here without any such demand. There the signs are the morning and the evening redness of the sky; here, the cloud in the west and the south wind blowing. It is, however, probable enough that a similar answer was called forth by a similar occasion.

There will be heat.—See Note on Matthew 20:12. The word rendered heat is probably used here as signifying the “burning wind,” the simoom, which, blowing over the desert, scorched and withered all that was green and fresh. (Compare to James 1:11, where it is rightly rendered burning heat.)

How is it that you do not discern this time?—What had been said before to Pharisees and Sadducees (Matthew 16:3) is here repeated with a wider application. It was true of the people, as of their teachers, that they did not discern the true import of the time, the season, the crisis in which they found themselves. It was the time of their visitation (see Note on Luke 19:44), and yet they did not know it.