Bible Strands
Matthew 23:38
Look, your house is left to you desolate.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses Jerusalem’s religious leaders immediately after lamenting their repeated rejection of His protective invitation. He pronounces this declaration at the conclusion of His public teaching ministry in the city.
The words — The Greek verb ἀφίεται (aphietai) is the passive form of ἀφίημι, meaning "is left" or "is abandoned," while ἔρημος (erēmos) literally means "desolate" or "waste." These terms anchor the declaration that divine presence is withdrawn from a rejecting community.
The thread — This exact phrasing appears in Luke 13:35 as a parallel Gospel account, echoes Jeremiah 22:5’s prophecy that a disobedient house will become ruins, and corresponds to Luke 21:24’s description of Jerusalem’s future occupation and desolation. The motif traces God’s withdrawal of protective presence from a people who refuse His words.
Why it lands — The text states that persistent refusal of divine warning results in the actual abandonment of the community’s spiritual center. It requires the reader to acknowledge that desolation follows deliberate rejection, treating the warning as a factual consequence rather than a conditional threat.
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
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 22:5 But if you do not obey these words, then I swear by Myself, declares the LORD, that this house will become a pile of rubble.’”
- Luke 13:35 Look, your house is left to you desolate. And I tell you that you will not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
- Luke 21:24 They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations. And Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
- 1 Kings 9:7 then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.
- Luke 19:43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will barricade you and surround you and hem you in on every side.
- Luke 21:6 “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
- Luke 21:20 But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, you will know that her desolation is near.
- Acts 6:13 where they presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law.
- Mark 13:14 So when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
- 2 Chronicles 7:20 then I will uproot Israel from the soil I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.