O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets
These words, with what follow, as they stand in ( Matthew 23:37-39 ) were delivered by Christ, when he was in the temple at Jerusalem; but here they were spoken by him when in Galilee, in Herod's jurisdiction; so that it appears, that the same words were spoken by Christ at different times, in different places, and to different persons: unless it can be thought, that Luke transcribed them from Matthew, and inserts them here, on occasion of Christ's having mentioned the perishing of a prophet in Jerusalem; where many had been killed and put to death, in one way or another, and particularly in the following:
and stonest them that are sent unto thee;
as Zechariah, ( 2 Chronicles 24:20-22 )
how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen
doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not?
and therefore ought not to have been condemned as a false prophet by their sanhedrim, as he suggests he should be, and as he afterwards was; (See Gill on Matthew 23:37).