Matthew 3:9

3:9 and don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones!

Matthew 19:29

19:29 And whoever has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much ¹  and will inherit eternal life.

Matthew 22:24

22:24 “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and father children ²  for his brother.’ ³ 

Matthew 23:37

Judgment on Israel

23:37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, ⁴  you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! ⁵  How often I have longed ⁶  to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but ⁷  you would have none of it! ⁸ 

[19:29]  ¹ sn Jesus reassures his disciples with a promise that (1) much benefit in this life (a hundred times as much) and (2) eternal life will be given.

[22:24]  ¹ tn Grk “and raise up seed,” an idiom for fathering children (L&N 23.59).

[22:24]  ² sn A quotation from Deut 25:5. This practice is called levirate marriage (see also Ruth 4:1-12; Mishnah, m. Yevamot; Josephus, Ant. 4.8.23 [4.254-256]). The levirate law is described in Deut 25:5-10. The brother of a man who died without a son had an obligation to marry his brother’s widow. This served several purposes: It provided for the widow in a society where a widow with no children to care for her would be reduced to begging, and it preserved the name of the deceased, who would be regarded as the legal father of the first son produced from that marriage.

[23:37]  ¹ sn The double use of the city’s name betrays intense emotion.

[23:37]  ² tn Although the opening address (“Jerusalem, Jerusalem”) is direct (second person), the remainder of this sentence in the Greek text is third person (“who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her”). The following sentences then revert to second person (“your… you”), so to keep all this consistent in English, the third person pronouns in the present verse were translated as second person (“you who kill… sent to you”).

[23:37]  ³ sn How often I have longed to gather your children. Jesus, like a lamenting prophet, speaks for God here, who longed to care tenderly for Israel and protect her.

[23:37]  ⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[23:37]  ⁵ tn Grk “you were not willing.”