TRANSlATION MATTHEW 23: 37

” Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones to death those sent to you, how many times I have longed to gather your children to me, just as a hen gathers the chicks under her wings, and you would not have it.

See this! your house will be left deserted.

I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, “How blest is one who comes in the Lord’s name!”

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This outburst is unique in Matthew, continuing the prophetic lament of the previous section, with its denunciation of religious leaders

Scholars differ on whether this should be taken as an outburst of Jesus, or of Jesus as prophet proclaiming the word of God. I incline to the latter view: the “how often”. comes from God, as does the self-identification of God as a mother hen. Did Jesus invent and use these words? That seems to me what Matthew presents, that Jesus articulates the sorrow of a God who will always invite but never compel his people, who foresees but never prevents the.calamity that they bring upon themselves. This is a moment. of profound pathos in Matthew’s story, where Jesus reveals his oneness with his heavenly father. This too is magic but of a very somber kind.