Matthew 10 · a question people ask
Jesus said, "you will not have gone through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man has come" (10:23). What did he mean?
Matthew gives the saying and doesn't explain it. Jesus said, "But when they persecute you in this city, flee into the next, for most certainly I tell you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man has come" (10:23). Christians read it in more than one way. Matthew doesn't say what it refers to, and neither do these notes. Favor's Psalm 11 asks whether it is wrong to flee from danger, with this verse among those it sets side by side, and Favor's 1 Samuel 27 draws a map line to it, labelled there as a reading.
The verses
“But when they persecute you in this city, flee into the next, for most certainly I tell you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man has come.”
“For the Chief Musician. By David. In the LORD, I take refuge. How can you say to my soul, “Flee as a bird to your mountain”?”
“David said in his heart, “I will now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me any more in all the borders of Israel. So I will escape out of his hand.””