Matthew 11:16

The textus receptus here has καὶ προσφωνοῦσι τοῖς ἑταὶροις αὐτῶν καὶ λέγουσιν. The authority for the correction is decisive.

16. ὁμοία ἐστὶν παιδίοις κ.τ.λ. If the grammatical form of the comparison be closely pressed, the interpretation must be that the children who complain of the others are the Jews who are satisfied neither with Jesus nor with John. The men of the existing generation appealed in turn to John and to Christ, and found no response in either. They blamed John for too great austerity, Jesus for neglect of Pharisaic exclusiveness and of ceremonial fasting.

But if the comparison be taken as applicable generally to the two terms, it may be explained by John first making an appeal, then Christ, and neither finding a response in the nation. This is the ordinary interpretation, and certainly agrees better with the facts, inasmuch as Christ and John made the appeal to the nation, not the nation to them.
It has been remarked that the joyous strain of the children, and the more genial mood of Christ, begin and end the passage, pointing to joyousness as the appropriate note of the Christian life.