Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Luke 23:31

"For if they do these things in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" — Luke 23:31 (ASV)

As Jesus heads to Calvary, Luke records an incident that expresses Jesus’ concern for the fate of Jerusalem (cf. 19:41–44; 21:20–24). Jewish women had always considered barrenness a misfortune and children a blessing. In the day of Jerusalem’s destruction, however, women would have the horror of seeing their children suffer and would wish they could have been spared that agony. The words Jesus quotes from Hos 10:8 are a plea for protection, not for quick death. Fire spreads much more rapidly through a dry forest than through a wet one; so Jesus’ words in v.31 warn of a future situation that is even worse than the events surrounding his crucifixion.