For if men do these things while the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
Parallel translations
- WEB For if they do these things in the green tree, what will be done in the dry?”
- KJV For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
- NKJV For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?”
- NASB For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
- NLT For if these things are done when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
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 asked, if such things are done to the green tree, what will happen to the dry. If the innocent suffers so, the guilty face far worse.
Overview
This proverbial saying contrasts the green (living, innocent) tree with the dry (dead, guilty) one. If God permits the righteous Jesus to suffer crucifixion, the judgment awaiting impenitent Jerusalem will be far more severe. The verse underscores the gravity of sin and the certainty of judgment for those who refuse the One who suffered for them.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Pet 4:17–18For 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?
- John 15:6If 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.
- Prov 11:31If the righteous receive their due on earth, how much more the ungodly and the sinner!
- Ezek 20:47–48Say 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.
- Ezek 15:2–7“Son of man, how does the wood of the vine surpass any other branch among the trees in the forest?
- Matt 3:12His 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.”
- Ezek 21:3–4and 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.
- Jer 25:29For 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.’
- Heb 6:8But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless, and its curse is imminent. In the end it will be burned.
- Dan 9:26Then 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.
- Jude 1:12These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 23:31 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.