Luke 23:31 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

For if they do those things in a green tree, &c.— If these things are done in green wood. Heylin. "If the Romans are permitted by heaven to inflict such heavy punishments upon me who am innocent, how dreadful must the vengeance be which they shall inflict on the nation, whose sins cry aloud to heaven, hastening the pace of the divine judgments, and rendering the perpetrators as fit for punishment, as dry wood is for burning." Comp. Ezekiel 20:47 with Ezekiel 21:3 where God's burning every green and every dry tree, is explained to be his destroying the righteous and the wicked together. See also Psalms 1:3 where a good man is compared to a green tree full of leaves: and both our Lord and John the Baptist resemble bad men to dry, dead, and barren trees. It is proverbial among the Jews, that "two dry sticks will burn a green one:" that is, the company of two wicked men may corrupt and bring judgments upon a good man. See Proverbs 11:31.