Matthew 11:17
Good News Translation
'We played wedding music for you, but you wouldn't dance! We sang funeral songs, but you wouldn't cry!'

New Revised Standard Version
‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’

Contemporary English Version
"We played the flute, but you would not dance! We sang a funeral song, but you would not mourn!"

New American Bible
‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’

Douay-Rheims Bible
Who crying to their companions say: We have piped to you, and you have not danced: we have lamented, and you have not mourned.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Who crying to their companions say: We have piped to you, and you have not danced: we have lamented, and you have not mourned.

We.

Isaiah 28:9-13 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand the hearing? them that are weaned from the milk, that are drawn away from the breasts. . . .

1 Corinthians 9:19-23 For whereas I was free as to all, I made myself the servant of all, that I might gain the more. . . .

piped.

Matthew 9:15,23 And Jesus said to them: Can the children of the bridegroom mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast. . . .

1 Kings 1:40 And all the multitude went up after him, and the people played with pipes, and rejoiced with a great joy, and the earth rang with the noise of their cry.

Isaiah 30:29 You shall have a song as in the night of the sanctified solemnity, and joy of heart, as where one goeth with a pipe, to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the Mighty One of Israel.

Jeremiah 9:17-20 Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, and let them come: and send to them that are wise women, and let them make haste: . . .

Jeremiah 31:4 And I will build thee again, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy timbrels, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.

Luke 15:25 Now his elder son was in the field and when he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing.

Context
Jesus Testifies about John
16But whereunto shall I esteem this generation to be like? It is like to children sitting in the market place. 17Who crying to their companions say: We have piped to you, and you have not danced: we have lamented, and you have not mourned. 18For John came neither eating nor drinking; and they say: He hath a devil.…
Cross References
Genesis 50:10
And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is situated beyond the Jordan: where celebrating the exequies with a great and vehement lamentation, they spent full seven days.

Matthew 11:16
But whereunto shall I esteem this generation to be like? It is like to children sitting in the market place.

Matthew 11:18
For John came neither eating nor drinking; and they say: He hath a devil.

Luke 7:32
They are like to children sitting in the marketplace and speaking one to another and saying: We have piped to you, and you have not danced: we have mourned, and you have not wept.

Luke 8:52
And all wept and mourned for her. But he said: Weep not. The maid is not dead, but sleepeth.

Luke 23:27
And there followed him a great multitude of people and of women, who bewailed and lamented him.

Matthew 11:16
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