Luke 23:31

ἐν τῷ ξηρῷ τί γένηται; ‘What must happen in the dry?’ The subjunctive is deliberative as in Matthew 26:54; Matthew 23:33. The meaning of this proverb is not clear, and hence it early received the most absurd explanations. It can however only mean either (1) ‘If they act thus cruelly and shamefully while the tree of their natural life is still green, what horrors of crime shall mark the period of its blighting?’—in which case it receives direct illustration from Ezekiel 20:47; comp. Luke 21:3-4; or (2) ‘If they act thus to Me the Innocent and the Holy, what shall be the fate of these, the guilty and false?’—in which case it expresses the same thought as 1 Peter 4:17-18. (See Proverbs 11:31; Ezekiel 20:47; Ezekiel 21:4; Matthew 3:10, and p. 385.) For the historic fulfilment in the horrors of a massacre so great as to weary the very soldiers, see Jos. B. J. VI. 44. For the expression ‘green’ and ‘dry tree’ see Psalms 1:5; Ezekiel 21:3.