Bible Strands
Luke 23:31
For if men do these things while the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus speaks to the mourning women of Jerusalem on the road to Golgotha, immediately after describing the coming devastation and just before the two criminals are led away for execution.
The words — ὑγρῷ (hugrō) = green or wet, and ξύλῳ (xulō) = tree, establish the literal image of a living, sap-filled branch contrasted with a dry, dead one.
The thread — This conditional logic runs through Proverbs 11:31 on the righteous receiving their due, 1 Peter 4:17 on judgment beginning with God’s household, and John 15:6 on branches that do not remain in Christ withering.
Why it lands — The text states that if the innocent suffers under the present judgment, the guilty must face a far heavier consequence, demanding a sober assessment of one’s standing before divine reckoning.
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
For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
Cross-references
- 1 Peter 4:17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God?
- Proverbs 11:31 If the righteous receive their due on earth, how much more the ungodly and the sinner!
- John 15:6 If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire, and burned.
- Ezekiel 20:47 Say to the forest of the Negev: Hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Lord GOD says: I am about to ignite in you a fire, and it will devour all your trees, both green and dry. The blazing flame will not be quenched, and by it every face from south to north will be scorched.
- Ezekiel 15:2 “Son of man, how does the wood of the vine surpass any other branch among the trees in the forest?
- Ezekiel 21:3 and tell her that this is what the LORD says: ‘I am against you, and I will draw My sword from its sheath and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked.
- Matthew 3:12 His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
- Jeremiah 25:29 For behold, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that bears My Name, so how could you possibly go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the LORD of Hosts.’
- Daniel 9:26 Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing. Then the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations have been decreed.
- Hebrews 6:8 But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless, and its curse is imminent. In the end it will be burned.