Luke 23:28,29 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

But Jesus turning, said, &c. Jesus, who ever felt the woes of others more than he did his own, forgetting his distress at the very time that it lay heaviest upon him, turned about, and with a benevolence and tenderness truly divine, said to them, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, &c. Not that they were to be blamed for weeping for him, but commended rather: those hearts were hard indeed, that were not affected with such sufferings of such a person; but he bids them weep not only for him, but also and especially for themselves, and for their children, namely, because of the destruction that was coming upon Jerusalem, which some of them would probably live to see, and share in the calamities thereof; or at least their children would, for whom it behooved them to be solicitous. For the days are coming in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, &c. As if he had said, “The calamities about to fall on you and your children are most terrible, and call for the bitterest lamentations; for in those days of vengeance you will vehemently wish that you had not given birth to a generation whose wickedness has rendered them objects of the divine wrath to a degree that never was experienced in the world before. And the thoughts of those calamities afflict my soul far more than the feeling of my own sufferings.” These words sufficiently imply that the days of distress and misery were coming, and would fall on them and on their children; which indeed they did in a most awful manner; though at that time there was not any appearance of such an immediate ruin: nor would the wisest politician have inferred it from the present state of affairs. The prediction was especially fulfilled during that grievous famine which so miserably afflicted Jerusalem during the siege. For, as Josephus reports, (Bell., Luke 5:10,) mothers snatched the food from their infants out of their very mouths: and again, in another place, (Bell., Luke 5:12,) the houses were full of women and children, who perished by famine. But Josephus relates a still more horrid story, which our Lord, with his spirit of prophecy, had probably in view. He says, (Bell., Luke 6:3,) “There was one Mary, the daughter of Eleazer, illustrious for her family and riches. She, having been stripped and plundered of all her substance and provisions by the soldiers, out of necessity and fury killed her own sucking child, and having boiled him, devoured half of him, and covering up the rest, preserved it for another time. The soldiers soon came, allured by the smell of victuals, and threatened to kill her immediately if she would not produce what she had dressed. But she replied, that she had preserved a good part for them, and uncovered the relict of her son. Dread and astonishment seized them, and they stood stupified at the sight. ‘But this,' said she, ‘is my own son, and this my work. Eat, for even I have eaten. Be not you more tender than a woman, nor more compassionate than a mother. But, if you have a religious abhorrence of my victim, I truly have eaten half; and let the rest remain for me.' They went away trembling, fearful to do this one thing; and hardly left this food for the mother. The whole city was struck with horrors” says the historian, “at this wickedness; and they were pronounced blessed, who died before they had heard or seen such great evils.”