John 7:34

34 You will seek me and will not find [me], and where I am, you cannot come."

John 7:34 Meaning and Commentary

John 7:34

Ye shall seek me
That is, the Messiah, who he was; meaning, that after his departure they should be in great distress, and be very much on the inquiry after, and solicitous for the coming of the Messiah, to be a Redeemer and Deliverer of them out of their troubles:

and shall not find [me];
no Messiah will appear, no Saviour will be sent, no Redeemer will come to relieve them; they shall inquire, and look for one in vain, as they did.

And where I am, [thither] ye cannot come;
intimating hereby, that not only their temporal estate and condition would be very distressed and miserable, but also their eternal estate; since they should not be able to come where he would be in his human nature, and where he now was as a divine person, namely, in heaven.

John 7:34 In-Context

32 The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these [things] about him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers in order {to take him into custody }.

33 Then Jesus said, "Yet a little time I am with you, and I am going to the one who sent me.

34 You will seek me and will not find [me], and where I am, you cannot come."

35 So the Jews said to one another, "Where [is] this one going to go, that we will not find him? He is not going to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, [is he]?

36 What is this saying that he said, 'You will seek me and will not find [me], and where I am, you cannot come'?"

Footnotes

• [a] *Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation
• [b] Some manuscripts explicitly state "me"