Bible Strands
Luke 23:30
At that time ‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses weeping women in Jerusalem while being led to crucifixion. He projects forward to a moment of national catastrophe when survivors will desperately beg the landscape to destroy them.
The words — The Greek ὄρεσιν (oresin) translates literally to "mountains," and πέσετε (pesete) means "fall" or "do fall." These verbs frame a command for the earth itself to collapse upon the speakers.
The thread — The plea for mountains to fall on people appears in Revelation 6:16 as a reaction to divine wrath. The same imagery of fleeing to rocks during judgment is recorded in Hosea 10:8 and Isaiah 2:19.
Why it lands — The text requires a reader to acknowledge that the coming judgment will be so absolute that physical burial will seem preferable to facing it. It demands sober recognition of the verse's warning without softening its severity.
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
Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.
Cross-references
- Revelation 6:16 And they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.
- Hosea 10:8 The high places of Aven will be destroyed—it is the sin of Israel; thorns and thistles will overgrow their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
- Isaiah 2:19 Men will flee to caves in the rocks and holes in the ground, away from the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of His majesty, when He rises to shake the earth.
- Revelation 9:6 In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will escape them.