John Calvin Commentary Luke 23:29

"For behold, the days are coming, in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the breasts that never gave suck." — Luke 23:29 (ASV)

For, lo, the days will come. He threatens that a calamity which is not usual, but fearful and unheard of, is near, in which God's vengeance will be perceived at a glance.

It is as if he had said that this nation will not be carried away by a single or ordinary kind of destruction, but that it will perish under a mass of numerous and great calamities. So great would these be that it would be much more desirable for the mountains to fall upon them and crush them, or for the earth to open and swallow them up, than for them to waste away amidst the cruel torments of a lingering destruction.

Nor did those threats fall to the ground without effect, but this thunder of words was surpassed by the terrible result, as is evident from Josephus. And as the wish to be crushed by the mountains and the cursing of their children expressed the deepest despair, Christ taught by these words that the Jews would at last feel that they had waged war not with a mortal man, but with God.

Thus will the enemies of God reap the just reward of their impious rage, when they who previously dared even to attack heaven, will desire in vain to use the earth as a shield against his vengeance.