Matthew 12:39

Matthew 12:39. An evil and adulterous generation. These Pharisees represent the great part of the Jewish people, who looked for a temporal Deliverer, showing signs from heaven. Here, as in the Old Testament, ‘adulterous' means unfaithful to God, idolatrous. Their craving after a sign was a token of the same spirit of apostacy which made them join with heathen idolaters in crucifying Jesus.

Seeketh after, craves, demands as essential. Comp. 1 Corinthians 1:22.

There shall no sign be given to it. ‘No sign,' to confirm their false views of the Messiah.

The sign of Jonah the prophet. One great sign would be given, typified in the history of Jonah, the death and resurrection of Christ. The sign of Messiahship, like the Messiah Himself, was the reverse of their expectations: not a sign ‘from heaven,' but from ‘the heart of the earth.'