Luke 11:47

47 Woe to you! For you build tombs for the prophets, but it was your fathers who killed them.

Luke 11:47 Meaning and Commentary

Luke 11:47

Woe unto you
Meaning particularly the lawyers or Scribes, together with the Pharisees, and even the whole body of the people, who in general were of the cast and complexion here described:

for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets;
(See Gill on Matthew 23:29)

and your fathers killed them;
the prophets; "or whom your fathers killed", as read the Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions; the one put them to death, and the other erected stately monuments over them, or adorned them; and yet both had the same malignant spirit against the faithful servants and messengers of God; and which showed their great hypocrisy.

Luke 11:47 In-Context

45 One of the experts in the law told Him, “Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us as well.”

46 “Woe to you as well, experts in the law!” He replied. “For you weigh men down with heavy burdens, but you yourselves will not lift a finger to lighten their load.

47 Woe to you! For you build tombs for the prophets, but it was your fathers who killed them.

48 So you are witnesses consenting to the deeds of your fathers: They killed the prophets, and you build their tombs.

49 Because of this, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles; some of them they will kill and others they will persecute.’