Luke 13:5

I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:1-5 Mention was made to Christ of the death of some Galileans. This tragical story is briefly related here, and is not met with in any historians. In Christ's reply he spoke of another event, which, like it, gave an instance of people taken away by sudden death. Towers, that are built for safety, often prove to be men's destruction. He cautioned his hearers not to blame great sufferers, as if they were therefore to be accounted great sinners. As no place or employment can secure from the stroke of death, we should consider the sudden removals of others as warnings to ourselves. On these accounts Christ founded a call to repentance. The same Jesus that bids us repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, bids us repent, for otherwise we shall perish.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I tell you, Nay - It is improper to suppose that those on whom heavy judgments fall in this world are the worst of people. This is not a world of retribution. Often the most wicked are suffered to prosper here, and their punishment is reserved for another world; while the righteous are called to suffer much, and "appear" to be under the sore displeasure of God, Psalm 73. This only we know, that the wicked will not always escape; that God is just; and that none who do suffer here or hereafter, suffer more than they deserve. In the future world, all that seems to be unequal here will be made equal and plain.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4, 5. tower in Siloam—probably one of the towers of the city wall, near the pool of Siloam. Of its fall nothing is known.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 13:4"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

I tell you, nay,.... I affirm it, and you may depend upon it, they were not greater sinners than others: though such a melancholy accident befell them, not without the providence of God:

but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish; or perish in the same manner; that is, shall be buried under the ruins of the city and temple of Jerusalem, when one stone should not be left upon another; just as these eighteen men were buried under the ruins of the tower of Siloam, of which it was a pledge and emblem; and accordingly great numbers of them did perish in the temple, and were buried under the ruins of it (d).

(d) Joseph. de Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 4.

Geneva Study Bible

I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. ye shall all likewise perish] The readings of the word ‘likewise’ vary between ‘homoios’ and ‘hosautos;’ but no distinct difference of meaning between the two words can be established, unless the latter be rather stronger, ‘in the very same way.’ Here again the actual incidents of the siege of Jerusalem—the deaths of many under the falling ruins of the city (Jos. B. J. vi. 9, vii. 1)—are the directest comment on our Lord’s words which yet bear the wider significance of the warning in Romans 2:1-11 r.

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 13:5. Ἀπολεῖσθε, ye shall perish) This actually took place in the siege and destruction of the city.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. The words were indeed prophetic to the letter. Thousands of Jews perished in the last terrible war by the swords of the Roman legionaries, like the Galilaeans of ver. 1; not a few met their death in the capital among the ruins of the burning fallen houses. We know that Jerusalem in its entirety was destroyed, and the loss of life in the siege, and especially in its dread closing scenes, was simply incalculable. Within forty years all this happened. Luke 13:5