11:17 ‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance; 1
we wailed in mourning, 2 yet you did not weep.’
‘You will listen carefully 3 yet will never understand,
you will look closely 4 yet will never comprehend.
1 sn ‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance…’ The children of this generation were making the complaint (see vv. 18-19) that others were not playing the game according to the way they played the music. John and Jesus did not follow “their tune.” Jesus’ complaint was that this generation wanted things their way, not God’s.
2 tn The verb ἐθρηνήσαμεν (eqrhnhsamen) refers to the loud wailing and lamenting used to mourn the dead in public in 1st century Jewish culture.
3 tn Grk “with hearing,” a cognate dative that intensifies the action of the main verb “you will listen” (ExSyn 168-69).
4 tn Grk “look by looking.” The participle is redundant, functioning to intensify the force of the main verb.
5 tn Grk “Blind guides who strain out a gnat yet who swallow a camel!”