“I tell you,” He answered, “if they remain silent, the very stones will cry out.”
Parallel translations
- WEB He answered them, “I tell you that if these were silent, the stones would cry out.”
- KJV And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
- NKJV But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”
- NASB Jesus replied, “I tell you, if these stop speaking, the stones will cry out!”
- NLT He replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus replies that if the people were silent, the very stones would cry out. The honor due to Christ cannot ultimately be suppressed.
Overview
Jesus refuses to silence the praise, declaring that creation itself would testify to his identity if his people did not. The saying affirms that he truly is the King worthy of worship. All creation is bound to glorify its Lord, and his rightful praise will not be quenched.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Hab 2:11For the stones will cry out from the wall, and the rafters will echo it from the woodwork.
- Isa 55:12You 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.
- Matt 3:9And 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.
- Ps 96:11Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea resound, and all that fills it.
- Ps 98:7–9Let the sea resound, and all that fills it, the world, and all who dwell in it.
- Ps 114:1–8When Israel departed from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
- Matt 27:51–54At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split.
- Matt 21:15–16But 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 Pet 2:6if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly;
- Matt 27:45From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 19:40 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.