Luke 11:47

47 Woe to you, because you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers 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 And one of the legal experts answered [and] said to him, "Teacher, [when you] say these [things], you insult us also!"

46 So he said, "Woe to you also, legal experts, because you load people [with] burdens hard to bear, and [you] yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers!

47 Woe to you, because you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them!

48 As a result you are witnesses, and you approve of the deeds of your fathers, because they killed them and you build [their tombs]!

49 For this [reason] also the wisdom of God said, 'I will send to them prophets and apostles, and [some] of them they will kill and persecute,'