Matthew 23:38
in Matthew 23Look, your house is left to you desolate.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
KJV
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
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This verse in Matthew 23
Commentary
16 notes on this verseVerse 38. Behold, your house shall be left desolate. This very thing Jeremiah had already said in the person of Jeremiah: I have forsaken my house, I have cast off my inheritance: my inheritance is become to me as a lion in the forest. We see with our eyes the house of the Jews left desolate, that is, that temple which shone more brightly, because it lost its inhabitant Christ, and, desiring to seize the inheritance, killed the heir.
This site's exposition
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets
on Matthew 23:37-39
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets breaks from indictment into lament, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not, a longing repeatedly offered and repeatedly refused rather than a door shut from God's side. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate names the temple's coming abandonment, and the bench reads this alongside the wider anti-supersessionism ruling this book keeps throughout, the judgment falling on that generation and that house rather than a final word against Israel as a people forever. For I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord answers the crowd's own Hosanna from chapter 21 with the same psalm, and the bench reads the till as a genuine future hope rather than an empty phrase, whether fulfilled at a national turning or at his return, the positions held honestly and the promise left standing as a promise rather than a closed door.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers4 voices
In like manner to all such as would not be gathered under His wings Christ speaks this threat; Behold, your house is left unto you desolate; i. e. your soul and your body. But if any one of you will not be gathered under the wings of Christ, from the very time when he shall have refused to be so gathered, (by a mental rather than a bodily act,) he shall no more see the beauty of the word, till repenting of his evil purpose he shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. And the word of the Lord then comes with a blessing upon a man's heart, when one is turned to God.
As the body, when the spirit departs, first becomes cold, and then decays and decomposes; so also your temple, when God's Spirit shall have withdrawn, shall be first filled with strife and anarchy, and after shall come to ruin.
the Lord Christ, who in those days when he had come down from the Mount of Olives, and beheld Jerusalem and wept over it as it lay opposite, said: How often would I have gathered thy children even as a hen gathereth her chickens under …
A commentator
John ChrysostomHomily on the Gospel of Matthew 74 · Written in the 5th century.
proposed
"But ye would not," He saith. "Behold your house is left desolate," stripped of the succor which cometh from me. Surely it was the same, who also was before protecting them, and holding them together, and preserving them; surely it was He who was ever chastening them. And He appoints a punishment, which they had ever dreaded exceedingly; for it declared the entire overthrow of their polity.
The Medieval Church1 voice
Then the punishment follows: behold, your house shall be left to you desolate. The whole people was honored on account of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem on account of the temple; therefore it says, your house shall be left, i.e., the temple, or the dwelling; Psalm 68:26: …
9 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church1 voice
But as you do not want My affection, I leave the temple empty and abandoned. From this let us learn that God inhabits the temples for our sake, but when we have forsaken God, then the temples are abandoned [by God] as well.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
8 But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. 9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. 10 Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture
He is bound - To keep his oath. He that sweareth by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon - Not only by the gift, but by the holy fire, and the sacrifice; and above all, by that God to whom they belong; inasmuch as every oath by a creature is an implicit appeal to God. Judgment - That is, justice: Faith - The word here means fidelity.
Behold your house is left unto you desolate.
The Nineteenth Century5 voices
Behold, your house - Ο οικος, the temple: - this is certainly what is meant. It was once the Lord’s temple, God’s Own house; but now he says, Your temple or house - to intimate that God had abandoned it. See the note on Mat 23:21; see also on Luk 13:35 (note).
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Behold, your house--the temple, beyond all doubt; but their house now, not the Lord's. See on Mt 22:7. is left unto you desolate--deserted, that is, of its Divine Inhabitant.
These verses form the conclusion of our Lord Jesus Christ’s address on the subject of the scribes and Pharisees. They are the last words which he ever spoke as a public teacher in the hearing of the people. The characteristic tenderness and compassion of our Lord shine forth in a striking manner at the close of his ministry. Though he left his enemies in unbelief, he shows that he loved and pitied them to the last. We learn in the first place from these verses that God often takes great pains with ungodly men.
These verses form the conclusion of our Lord Jesus Christ’s address on the subject of the scribes and Pharisees. They are the last words which he ever spoke as a public teacher in the hearing of the people. The characteristic tenderness and compassion of our Lord shine forth in a striking manner at the close of his ministry. Though he left his enemies in unbelief, he shows that he loved and pitied them to the last. We learn in the first place from these verses that God often takes great pains with ungodly men. He sent the Jews “prophets and wise men and scribes.” He gave them repeated warnings; he sent them message after message. He did not allow them to go on sinning without rebuke. They could never say they were not told when they did wrong. This is the way in which God generally deals with unconverted Christians. He does not cut them off in their sins without a call to repentance: he knocks at the door of their hearts by sicknesses and afflictions; he assails their consciences by sermons, or by the advice of friends; he summons them to consider their ways by opening the grave under their eyes, and taking away from them their idols. They often know not what it all means; they are often blind and deaf to all his gracious messages. But they will see his hand at last, though perhaps too late. They will find that “God spake once yea twice but they perceive it not.” ( Job 33:14 ). They will discover that they too, like the Jews, had prophets, wise men and scribes sent to them. There was a voice in every providence, “Turn ye! Turn ye! Why will you die?” ( Ezekiel 33:11 ). We learn in the second place from these verses that God takes notice of the treatment which his messengers and ministers receive, and will one day reckon for it.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Your house - The temple. The house of worship of the Jews. The chief ornament of Jerusalem. Desolate - About to be desolate or destroyed. To be forsaken as a place of worship, and delivered into the hands of the Romans, and destroyed. See the notes at Matt. 24.
How the passage was read
On Matthew 23:1-39On Matthew 23:1-39
The woes, read from inside Israel's own tradition
Read the chapter's own frame before its fire. Jesus opens by AFFIRMING the teaching office: the scribes and Pharisees “sit in Moses' seat,” the expositor's chair of the synagogue (stone seats of honor survive in excavated synagogues), “so practice and observe whatever they tell you” (23:2-3). And in the sharpest woe He still says of the tithe, “these you ought to have done” (23:23). The target throughout is hypocrisy in practice, never Torah observance itself. Each image is concrete: tefillin (the small Scripture boxes bound on arm and forehead in prayer, still worn today) made extra broad to be seen; tzitzit (the commanded tassels, Numbers 15:38, which Jesus Himself wore, Matthew 9:20) made extra long; the oath casuistry of Temple versus gold; herbs tithed while justice goes unweighed.
“Whited sepulchres” is seasonal and local: before Passover, graves were freshly marked with white lime so that pilgrims would not contract corpse impurity unawares; the Mishnah schedules the grave-marking in the month of Adar, a month before the feast (Shekalim 1:1). The pilgrim crowds hearing Jesus had just walked roads lined with newly whitened tombs. And the register of the speech is one Israel's own tradition could use of itself: the Talmud preserves a list of seven types of Pharisee, most of them bad, and warns against the “plague of Pharisees” (Sotah 22b), a self-critique sharper than most sermons. The chapter is a woe-oracle in the prophets' own tradition (Isaiah 1, Malachi 1-2), spoken in the Temple, and it ends not in triumph but in a lament that aches: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem... how often would I have gathered thy children together” (23:37).
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Sources: Mishnah Shekalim 1:1 (graves marked in Adar, before Passover) · Sotah 22b (Babylonian Talmud, the seven types of Pharisee) · Mishnah Menachot 4:1 (tefillin and tzitzit in practice)
The words behind it
7 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ἰδοὺ | idou | Behold | G2400 → | 200 times |
| ἀφίεται | aphietai | is left | G863 → | 143 times |
| ὑμῖν | humin | to you | G4771 → | 2973 times |
| ὁ | ho | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| οἶκος | oikos | house | G3624 → | 112 times |
| ὑμῶν | humon | of you | G4771 → | 2973 times |
| ἔρημος. | eremos | desolate! | G2048 → | 48 times |
ἰδοὺBehold
idouG2400 →200 times
ἀφίεταιis left
aphietaiG863 →143 times
ὑμῖνto you
huminG4771 →2973 times
ὁthe
hoG3588 →19766 times
οἶκοςhouse
oikosG3624 →112 times
ὑμῶνof you
humonG4771 →2973 times
ἔρημος.desolate!
eremosG2048 →48 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Luke 21:24They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations. And Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
it leads to
- Romans 11:25
I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not be conceited: A hardening in part has come to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles…
- Revelation 11:2
But exclude the courtyard outside the temple. Do not measure it, because it has been given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for 42 months.
- Isaiah 63:18
For a short while Your people possessed Your holy place, but our enemies have trampled Your sanctuary.
- Daniel 12:7
And the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by Him who lives forever,…
- Daniel 9:27
And he will confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of the temple…
- Romans 11:25
Through
Luke 13:35Look, your house is left to you desolate. And I tell you that you will not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
it leads to
- Psalms 118:26
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you.
- Mark 11:9–10
The ones who went ahead and those who followed were shouting: “Hosanna!” “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
- Psalms 118:26
Through
1 Kings 9:7then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 24:9
I will make them a horror and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing wherever I have banished them.
- Jeremiah 24:9
Where this verse is studied
About Matthew
This page draws on 14 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Cosmas Indicopleustes, The Christian Topography, Book 3; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Matthew; John Chrysostom, Homily on the Gospel of Matthew 74; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Pseudo-Chrysostom, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Matthew and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Matthew.