Your house - Ὁ οικος, the temple - called here your house, not my house - I acknowledge it no longer; I have abandoned it, and will dwell in it no more for ever. So he said, 2 Chronicles 36:17, when he delivered the temple into the hands of the Chaldeans - the house of Your sanctuary. A similar form of speech is found, Exodus 32:7, where the Lord said to Moses, Thy people, etc., to intimate that he acknowledged them no longer for his followers. See the notes on Matthew 23:21, Matthew 23:38. But some think that our Lord means, not the temple, but the whole commonwealth of the Jews.

The principal subjects it this chapter may be found considered at large, on the parallel places in Matthew and Mark, to which the reader is referred. As to the account of the woman with the spirit of infirmity, which is not mentioned by any other of the evangelists, see it largely illustrated in the notes on Luke 13:11 (note), etc.

Behold, your house is left unto you desolate,.... That is, would be in a little time, both city and temple; See Gill on Matthew 23:38.

and verily I say unto you; affirm in the strongest manner:

ye shall not see me; the Arabic version adds, "from henceforth", and so some copies, as in Matthew 23:39 and so the Ethiopic version, "from this time"; that he spoke these words, whether in Galilee, or in the temple:

until the time come; or "until he shall come", meaning himself, and his second coming:

when ye shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; not they themselves in person, but their posterity, who will be converted in the latter day: and shall acknowledge the Messiah, the blessed of the Lord, who will come in his name, to judge the world in righteousness: or else the meaning is, that when Christ shall come a second time, and every eye shall see him, these Jews, among the rest, shall behold him, whom they have pierced, and mourn; and wish themselves among those, that shall receive him with joyful acclamations; and however, will be obliged to own him as the Messiah, and to confess that he comes in the name, and with the authority of the Lord, and that he is blessed for evermore.

Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

13:34,35 O Jerusalem. See notes on Mt 23:37-39. These words were probably uttered twice.

13:35 Your house is left to you desolate - Is now irrecoverably consigned to desolation and destruction: And verily I say to you, after a very short space, ye shall not see me till the time come, when taught by your calamities, ye shall be ready and disposed to say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. It does not imply, that they should then see Jesus at all; but only that they would earnestly wish for the Messiah, and in their extremity be ready to entertain any who should assume that character.

Margin until

See Scofield Note: "Mt 23:39".

Margin Lord

Jehovah. Ps 118:26.

13:31-35 Christ, in calling Herod a fox, gave him his true character. The greatest of men were accountable to God, therefore it became him to call this proud king by his own name; but it is not an example for us. I know, said our Lord, that I must die very shortly; when I die, I shall be perfected, I shall have completed my undertaking. It is good for us to look upon the time we have before us as but little, that we may thereby be quickened to do the work of the day in its day. The wickedness of persons and places which more than others profess religion and relation to God, especially displeases and grieves the Lord Jesus. The judgment of the great day will convince unbelievers; but let us learn thankfully to welcome, and to profit by all who come in the name of the Lord, to call us to partake of his great salvation.