Luke 23:28-29

23:28 But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, ¹  do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves ²  and for your children. 23:29 For this is certain: ³  The days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore children, and the breasts that never nursed!’ ⁴ 

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¹ sn The title Daughters of Jerusalem portrays these women mourning as representatives of the nation.

map For the location of Jerusalem see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

² sn Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves. Judgment now comes on the nation (see Luke 19:41-44) for this judgment of Jesus. Ironically, they mourn the wrong person – they should be mourning for themselves.

³ tn Grk “For behold.”

⁴ tn Grk “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the breasts that have not nursed!”

sn Normally barrenness is a sign of judgment, because birth would be seen as a sign of blessing. The reversal of imagery indicates that something was badly wrong.