Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 7:29

"And all the people when they heard, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John." — Luke 7:29 (ASV)

And all the people that heard him . . .—Here the reports begin to vary, Saint Luke omitting what we find in Saint Matthew regarding “the kingdom of heaven suffering violence;” and Saint Luke inserting a statement, probably intended for his Gentile readers, concerning the effect produced by the preaching of the Baptist on the two classes who stood at opposite extremes of the social and religious life of Judea.

Justified God.—Better, perhaps, acknowledged God as righteous. The word is commonly applied in this sense to humans rather than to God; but it appears so used in the quotation in Romans 3:4 from the Septuagint version of Psalm 51:4. Here it has a special significance in connection with the statement that follows in Luke 7:35, that wisdom is justified of all her children.