Luke Chapter 11 verse 44 Holy Bible
Woe unto you! for ye are as the tombs which appear not, and the men that walk over `them' know it not.
read chapter 11 in ASV
A curse is on you! for you are like the resting-places of dead men, which are not seen, and men go walking over them without knowledge of it.
read chapter 11 in BBE
Woe unto you, for ye are as the sepulchres which appear not, and the men walking over them do not know [it].
read chapter 11 in DARBY
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.
read chapter 11 in KJV
read chapter 11 in WBT
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like hidden graves, and the men who walk over them don't know it."
read chapter 11 in WEB
`Wo to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because ye are as the unseen tombs, and the men walking above have not known.'
read chapter 11 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 44. - Ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. Here and in St. Matthew the same imagery was present in the great Teacher's mind - the whitewashed tombs of a cemetery. But in the report of St. Matthew the Master's picture drew a sharp contrast between the fair outward appearance of the clean white tomb, and the decaying, loathsome mass of what represented poor humanity within! When Jesus spoke the saying related by St. Luke here, the imagery was still drawn from the graves in a cemetery; but now he compared his hosts and their school of thought to graves, from the wood and stones of which the whitewash was worn off, and passers-by would walk over them, thus touching them and contracting ceremonial defilement, without being conscious what they were walking over and touching. All contact with sepulchres involved ceremonial defilement; hence the fact of their being constantly whitewashed in order to warn passers-by of their presence. This silent warning of the graves has been compared to the leper's cry, "Unclean, unclean!" with which he warned passers-by of his sad defiling presence. These tombs were whitewashed usually yearly on the fifteenth day of the month Adar (about the beginning of March). Tiberius on the lake was built partly on the site of an old unsuspected cemetery; no true Jew would reside there in consequence.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(44) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!--The better MSS. give simply, Woe unto you, Pharisees, (See Note on Matthew 23:27.)Ye are as graves which appear not.--The comparison, though drawn from the same object, presents a different phase of it. In St. Matthew the contrast is between the whitened surface and the decaying bones within. Here the whitewash is worn out, and there is nothing to distinguish the graves, and men walk over them without knowing what lies below the surface.
