It must be made clear in translation that Jerusalem is here used of the people of Jerusalem. “People of Jerusalem” or “O, you people of Jerusalem” may be necessary. But neither of these is as effective as the text, which should be retained if readers can understand it.

Killing … stoning is similar in construction to “kill and crucify” of verse 34. It may need to be a separate sentence: “You kill the prophets and you stone to death the messengers God sent to you.” As in the earlier passage the order may need to be reversed here as well: “stoning to death (some) and killing (some) by other means.”

Prophets … those … sent to you may be interpreted as parallel expressions, employed for the sake of emphasis: “God sent people to proclaim his message to you. But you stoned some of them to death, and you murdered some of them in other ways” or “… But you murdered some of them by stoning them, and you murdered some by other means.”

How often … would not: the difficulty with this exclamatory construction is that it may initially be read (or heard) as a question. One may find it advisable to transform the question into a strong affirmative statement: “Many times I wanted … but you would not let me.”

Your children, when used of a city, represents a Hebrew idiom in which the noun children is the equivalent of “inhabitants” (Good News Translation “your people”).

How often … under her wings appears in Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch as a separate sentence: “How often would I have gathered your inhabitants around me, as a hen gathers her young under her wings!” As in this example, gathered … together is often translated as “gathered your people around me” or “bring all your people around me.”

In those few areas of the world where chickens are not common, translators should substitute some other bird or fowl, such as a partridge, that also gathers her young together in time of danger.

And you would not is expressed in Good News Translation as “but you would not let me.” Some languages will require an even more comprehensive statement: “but you would not let me do it” or “but you would not allow me to gather you in that way.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .