He replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!”
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.
- BSB “I tell you,” He answered, “if they remain silent, the very stones will 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!”
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 stone will cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the woodwork will answer it.
- Isa 55:12For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills will break out before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands.
- Matt 3:9Don’t think to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
- Ps 96:11Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar, and its fullness!
- Ps 98:7–9Let the sea roar with its fullness; the world, and those who dwell therein.
- Ps 114:1–8When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign language;
- Matt 27:51–54Behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split.
- Matt 21:15–16But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children who were crying in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the son of David!” they were indignant,
- 2 Pet 2:6and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly;
- Matt 27:45Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.
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.