Jesus, always mindful of others, and foreseeing the dreadful sufferings that would come upon the city in consequence of His death, "turning unto them, said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren" (that is, the women who have no children to suffer). "Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" This is figurative language, meaning that the calamities about to fall on Jerusalem would be so dreadful, that the Jewish women, who considered it a great misfortune to have no children, would then be thankful, and considered blessed because they had none: and that, in the impossibility of escaping from their miseries, all people would be glad if the mountains could fall and crush them. Then Jesus reminded them, that if a green tree is quickly burnt up, a dry and withered one will be burnt much more quickly. In the Scriptures, good men are often compared to green and flourishing trees; and bad men to dry and barren ones. The meaning of our Lord was therefore, If God in His wisdom sees fit to let Me, who am holy and righteous in His sight, suffer such things as ye have seen; what think ye will He do to the wicked and unrighteous? Jesus was not crucified alone: it seems that at this time there were two criminals sentenced to a similar death. "And there were two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death." In reading these words, we must be very careful to pause at the comma after other, because the meaning is, "and there were two other (persons, who were) malefactors, led with him," &c. Malefactors mean persons that have done evil. St. Matthew tells us that these men were thieves: probably some of those robbers who troubled Judæa at that time, carrying off cattle and whatever they could lay their hands upon, and often killing those who tried to defend their property. These men were justly condemned to death in punishment of their sins, and they were now led out to be crucified with the innocent and holy Jesus. The prophet Isaiah, speaking seven hundred years before of the Messiah, had said, "He was numbered with the transgressors"; "and he made his grave with the wicked." He was, indeed, "numbered," or considered to be one of the transgressors, fit only to share the fate of such. Literally was Isaiah's prophecy fulfilled, when Jesus was led out with two malefactors to die with them.