Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Luke 19:44

"and shall dash thee to the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation." — Luke 19:44 (ASV)

Jesus is still outside the city of Jerusalem as he utters this lament. Once more Luke focuses on Jesus’ concern for the city (cf. 13:34) and adds his prediction of its destruction, a prediction not given in 13:34. The day of peace has finally arrived, but the city, whose very name means “peace,” has failed to recognize it. For a further description of Jerusalem’s fate, see 21:20–24. “God’s coming” has here the sense of a “visitation” that brings good or ill—in this case, either salvation or judgment.

Jesus’ question is not intended to suggest that there could not be a descendant of David who was also “Lord,” but that the seemingly irreconcilable has meaning only if he is more than just a human descendant. Paul expressed the complete answer to the question in Ro 1:3–4, which says that Jesus was a descendant of David as to his human nature but declared Son of God by his resurrection.