Bible Strands
Luke 19:40
“I tell you,” He answered, “if they remain silent, the very stones will cry out.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jesus answers the Pharisees who asked him to rebuke his disciples, moments before entering Jerusalem.
The words — Λέγω (legō, "I say") is the same formulaic marker Jesus uses for solemn pronouncements, as in Matthew 3:9.
The thread — The image of stones crying out echoes Habakkuk 2:11, where creation testifies against injustice; Isaiah 55:12 extends the motif to mountains and hills singing before God's people.
Why it lands — The Pharisees asked for control over the narrative; Jesus answers that the narrative is beyond their control. It asks the reader to name what they are trying to silence and whether that silence holds.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
Cross-references
- Habakkuk 2:11 For the stones will cry out from the wall, and the rafters will echo it from the woodwork.
- Isaiah 55:12 You will indeed go out with joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
- Matthew 3:9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.
- Psalms 96:11 Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea resound, and all that fills it.
- Psalms 98:7 Let the sea resound, and all that fills it, the world, and all who dwell in it.
- Psalms 114:1 When Israel departed from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
- Matthew 27:51 At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked, and the rocks were split.
- Matthew 21:15 But the chief priests and scribes were indignant when they saw the wonders He performed and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
- 2 Peter 2:6 if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly;
- Matthew 27:45 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.