Luke 23:29-30

23:29 For this is certain: ¹  The days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore children, and the breasts that never nursed!’ ²  23:30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ³  ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ ⁴ 

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¹ tn Grk “For behold.”

² 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.

³ sn The figure of crying out to the mountains ‘Fall on us!’ (appealing to creation itself to hide them from God’s wrath), means that a time will come when people will feel they are better off dead (Hos 10:8).

⁴ sn An allusion to Hos 10:8 (cf. Rev 6:16).