John Gill Commentary Matthew 24:2

"But he answered and said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." — Matthew 24:2 (ASV)

And Jesus said to them, do you not see all these things? &c.] "These great buildings", as in Mark; all these goodly stones, so beautiful and large, and so firmly put together:

verily, I say to you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down; or broken, as Munster's Hebrew Gospel reads it: which prediction had a full and remarkable accomplishment; and which is not only attested by Josephus ^F25, who relates, that both the city and temple were dug up, and laid level with the ground;

but also by other Jewish writers; who tell us ^F26 that on the ninth of Ab, a day prepared for punishments, Turnus Rufus the wicked, (lkyhh ta vrx), "ploughed up the temple", and all round about it, to fulfil what is said, "Zion shall be ploughed as a field." Yes, and to fulfil what Christ here says too, that not one stone should be left upon another, which a plough would not admit of.

---

FOOTNOTES:

• F25: De Bello Jud. l. 7. c. 7.
• F26: Maimon. Hilch. Taaniot, c. 5. sect. 3. T. Bab. Taanith, fol. 23. 1. & Gloss. in ib.