When he drew near, seeing the city, He wept over it

St Luke Chapter XIX : Verses 39-48

Contents

• Luke xix. Verses 39-48.  Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text & Latin text (Vulgate)
• Douay-Rheims 1582 text
• Annotations based on the Great Commentary

Luke xix. Verses 39-48.

My house is the house of prayer. But you have made it a den of thieves.
J-J Tissot. Brooklyn museum.

39 And some of the Pharisees, from amongst the multitude, said to him: Master, rebuke thy disciples.

Et quidam pharisæorum de turbis dixerunt ad illum : Magister, increpa discipulos tuos.

40 To whom he said: I say to you, that if these shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out.

Quibus ipse ait : Dico vobis, quia si hi tacuerint, lapides clamabunt.

41 And when he drew near, seeing the city, he wept over it, saying:

Et ut appropinquavit, videns civitatem flevit super illam, dicens :

42 If thou also hadst known, and that in this thy day, the things that are to thy peace; but now they are hidden from thy eyes.

Quia si cognovisses et tu, et quidem in hac die tua, quæ ad pacem tibi : nunc autem abscondita sunt ab oculis tuis.

43 For the days shall come upon thee, and thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and straiten thee on every side,

Quia venient dies in te : et circumdabunt te inimici tui vallo, et circumdabunt te : et coangustabunt te undique :

44 And beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children who are in thee: and they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone: because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation.

et ad terram prosternent te, et filios tuos, qui in te sunt, et non relinquent in te lapidem super lapidem : eo quod non cognoveris tempus visitationis tuæ.

45 And entering into the temple, he began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought.

Et ingressus in templum, cœpit ejicere vendentes in illo, et ementes,

46 Saying to them: It is written: My house is the house of prayer. But you have made it a den of thieves.

dicens illis : Scriptum est : Quia domus mea domus orationis est : vos autem fecistis illam speluncam latronum.

47 And he was teaching daily in the temple. And the chief priests and the scribes and the rulers of the people sought to destroy him:

Et erat docens quotidie in templo. Principes autem sacerdotum, et scribae, et princeps plebis quærebant illum perdere :

48 And they found not what to do to him: for all the people were very attentive to hear him.

et non inveniebant quid facerent illi. Omnis enim populus suspensus erat, audiens illum.

Douay-Rheims : 1582 text

39. And certaine Phariſees of the multitudes ſaid to him: Maiſter, rebuke thy Disſiples.

40. To whom he ſaid: I ſay to you, that if theſe hold their peace, the ſtones ſhal crie.
41. ⋮And as he drew neere, ſeeing the citie, he wept vpon it, ſaying,
42. Becauſe if thou also hadſt knowen, and that in this thy day, the things that pertaine to thy peace: but now they are hid from thine eyes.
43. For the daies ſhal come vpon thee: and thy enemies ſhal compaſſe thee with a with a trenche, and incloſe thee about, and ſtraiten thee on euery ſide,

44. and beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children that are in thee: and they ſhal not leaue in thee a ſtone vpon a ſtone, becauſe thou hast not knowen the time of thy visitation.
45. And entring into the Temple, he began to caſſt out the ſellers therein and the buyers,

46. ſaying to them: It is written, That my houſe is the houſe of praier. But you haue made it a denne of theeues.
47. And he was teaching daily in the Temple. And the cheefe Prieſts and the Scribes and the Princes of the people ſought to deſtroy him:
48. and they found not what to doe to him. For al the people was ſuſpense, hearing him.

 

Annotations

    41. And when he drew near, seeing the city, he wept over it, &c. To show the bowels of His love to it. How dear to Him was the salvation of the Jews, for to this had He been sent by the Father as the Messiah and Saviour. He wept therefore among all the joys of His triumph, and amidst the happy declamations of those who congratulated Him and shouted Hosanna, that He might temper their joy, by a mixture as it were of gall. He wept as well over the blindness, obduracy, and ingratitude of the people of Jerusalem, because they would not receive Him as their Messiah and Saviour, as for the vengeance of God towards them and the destruction of their nation by Titus; and because He saw His own labours and sufferings for them frustrated and rendered of no effect. These three causes wrung tears from Christ, from the vehemence of His grief. So S. Cyril, Bede, Theophylact and others. In trope, Origen says, “Christ fulfilled all the beatitudes in His own Person. He said, ‘Blessed are they that mourn,’ and He therefore wept.”

    42. If thou also hadst known. “As I know,” says S. Gregory (hom. 39), Bede and others. Because I am come to thee as thy Messiah, for thy salvation, to save thee, and bring thee everlasting blessing, according to the words of Zech. ix. If thou hadst known what is for thy good, salvation, and happiness, namely, penitence and faith in Me, which I have taught thee these three years past, thou wouldst weep, as I do, for thy past blindness and obstinacy. Euthymius supplies, “Thou wouldst in no wise perish.” Others say, “Thou wouldst bear thyself otherwise; listen to Me, and believe in Me.” The Syriac has, “If thou hadst known the things that are for thy peace and salvation in this thy day.” The Arabic: “If thou hadst known, even thou, and in this thy day, how much peace there was for thee in it.” Peace, in Hebrew, means prosperity, safety, happiness, every good, both of body and soul.

    It is an aposiopesis, [A rhetorical artifice, in which the speaker comes to a sudden halt, as if unable or unwilling to proceed] showing the profound passion of grief and indignation in Christ, for He upbraids the ungrateful city with its unbelief, obstinacy, and ingratitude. This feeling in Christ was so strong that it choked His voice, and compelled Him to be silent, as by aposiopesis. “For those who weep,” says Euthymius, “break off their words abruptly, from the strength of their feelings.” There is again great passion “pathos,” in the words; “Even thou, O daughter of Zion, by Me so beloved, so honoured, so enriched: for thee have I come from heaven to earth, for thee was I born at Bethlehem, for thee have I lived thirty-four years in continued labour, suffering, poverty. for three years have I taught and preached in thy towns and villages; I have healed thy lepers, thy sick, thy possessed; I have restored thy dead to life. Thou, therefore, daughter of Jerusalem, why dost thou not return the love of one who so loves thee, but scornest and destroyest Him as an enemy? It will come, it will come shortly, that great day of the Lord, in which thou will too late confess thy unbelief and lament thy blindness. This is thy day, in which thou vainly exultest in thy wealth, thy luxury, thy pomps. But My day shall come, yea, the day of the Lord, in which He will most grievously punish thee, and utterly root thee out, and in which thou shalt pour forth the inconsolable and never ceasing tears of most bitter anguish.” 

    In trope, S. Gregory in his 39th Homily says, “The perverse soul, which delights in the passing day, here meets its day. The soul, that is, to which present things are peace, because, while it takes pleasure in temporal prosperity: while it is elevated by honour while it is dissolved in the pleasures of sense, while it is terrified by no thoughts of a punishment to come, it has peace in its day, although in one to come it will meet with heavy condemnation. For it will be afflicted when the righteous rejoice, and all that was lately for its peace will be turned into the bitterness of contention. For it will begin to be at strife with itself, and to question itself, as to why it had not feared the condemnation to come, and had shut the eyes of its soul to the prospect of the evils to come.

    but now they are hidden from thy eyes. Because (de Industria) thou wouldst not know, says Titus. And Eusebius, in the Catena, “Christ makes known His coming for the peace of the world, and when they would not receive that peace, it was hidden from them.” The Incarnation of Christ, His preaching, His passion, His resurrection, were hidden from the Jews. Equally so their own perfidy, blindness, ingratitude, and therefore their punishment and destruction by Titus. “For,” says S. Gregory, “if we saw the evils that are impending, we should not rejoice in present prosperity.” Again, in figure, “The perverse soul, while it loses itself in the enjoyments of the present life, what does it but walk with closed eyes into the fire?” Hence it is well written, In the day of good things be not unmindful of the evil. And S. Paul, “Let those that rejoice be as those that rejoice not.” For if there is any joy in the present time, it should be so felt, as that the bitterness of the future judgment should never be absent from the thoughts, for while the reverent mind is pierced by fear of the final punishment, in proportion to its present rejoicing will the wrath hereafter be tempered.

    43. For the days shall come upon thee. The Greek reads, “Thy enemies shall cast up a bank about thee and compass thee round.” The Arabic, “The days shall come in which thine enemies shall throw down thy standards, and shall surround thee.” How truly Christ foretold this appears from Josephus, who in Bk. vi. chap. 37, of his “Wars of the Jews,” says that Titus and the Romans erected three mounds round Jerusalem, and, in the space of only three days, surrounded the whole city with a wall of 39 stadia [4.8 miles], so that there should be neither exit nor passage for any one. Christ alludes to Isaiah xxix. 1, 2, “Woe to Ariel,” &c. For Jerusalem, which before was strong and unconquered, was, as it were, Ariel—that is, the Lion of God, now deserted by me, and given over to destruction by the Romans, and to become, as it were, the ram of justice, and the sacrifice of divine vengeance. So Eusebius, S. Cyril and Theodoret on Isaiah xxix. 1.

    and compass thee round, and straiten thee on every side. To such a pitch of famine, and to such straits shalt thou be reduced that mothers shall devour even their own children. Josephus, “Wars of the Jews” chap. 16 and following.

    44. And beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children who are in thee: and they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone: . That is, shall destroy thee utterly; spoken in hyperbole, for the Romans were not so laborious or so idle, as to leave no stone upon another. S. Greg., hom. xxxix. The migration from the city is testified to, for it is now built on the spot where the Lord was crucified outside the gate. The former Jerusalem is utterly destroyed; for Mount Calvary is now in the middle of the new city.

    because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation. “The time of this visitation,” says Titus, “is that of Christ’s coming down from heaven.” “In figure all these things happen to the soul that has lived as a slave to the flesh. For then the devils surround it on all sides, tempt it, hedge it in, and carry it off to hell. Then all that erection of stones, that is, their thoughts, is overthrown, because they did not know the time of their visitation, when God by His preachers, His confessors, His masters, and His internal inspirations, warned them to amend their lives and take thought for their salvation,” says S. Gregory hom. 39, Greg., Dial. Bk. iv. chaps. 30, 38, 46, 52, and following, gives the dreadful example of Chrysaorius Theodore, King Theodoric, and others.

    45.-48. The cleansing of the Temple, see St Matthew Chapter XXI : Verses 12-17.

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.