Matthew 11:17

We have piped. Apparently the figure is here used of groups of children at play. One group evidently desired to imitate some joyous festal occasion, such as a wedding.

Ye have not danced. In a perverse mood, the other children refused to play, and made no response to the proposal of the first group.

Have mourned. Gr. threned, “to lament,” or “to bewail.” Carrying on the figure of children at play (v. 16), Matthew makes the first group of children say, as it were, “Very well, if that is the way you feel, let’s play funeral.” In the Orient loud and demonstrative wailing is almost always associated with funerals. Generally, there are paid mourners at the home when death comes, and later in the funeral procession (see Matt. 9:23; see on Mark 5:38 cf. Jer. 9:17).

Ye have not lamented. Literally, “Ye have not beaten your breasts in grief.” Apparently this second suggestion of the children also did not please their playmates, for the latter seem determined not to be pleased. The problem was not whether they felt like mourning or like dancing; they simply did not want to do what the others suggested. The application of the figure here used is obvious. The children who would not be pleased by anything represented the scribes and the Pharisees, who criticized both John and Jesus (see on vs. 18, 19).