Luke 19:44

Luke 19:44. Shall dash to the ground thee. The word here used has this sense in the LXX., and it is more appropriate here, since it is applied to thy children within thee. The ‘children' are the inhabitants, not merely infants; the city, which has been personified throughout, is conceived of as a mother. These words were fulfilled, when the Roman soldiers went through the city destroying houses and people in one common ruin.

One stone upon another. Comp. Matthew 24:2. This was afterwards predicted of the temple, here of the whole city. The temple was totally destroyed at the close of the siege (A. D. 70); the city partially then, but fully in the time of the Emperor Adrian (A. D. 135). The order of the verse, suggests this destruction as occurring after all the other fearful incidents.

Visitation may mean in mercy or in judgment; the former sense is prominent here. In mercy our Lord now came; they knew Him not, rejected Him at this ‘time' (= opportunity, season), and thus turned the season of mercy into a long, long period of judgment.