Luke 7:32

New English Translation

³²They are like children sitting in the marketplace^[a] and calling out to one another,^[b]

‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance;^[c]
we wailed in mourning,^[d] yet you did not weep.’

Luke 7:32 sn The marketplace (Greek agora) was not only a place of trade and commerce in the first century Greco-Roman world. It was a place of discussion and dialogue (the “public square”), a place of judgment (courts held session there), a place for idle people and those seeking work, and a place for children to play.
Luke 7:32 tn Grk “They are like children sitting…and calling out…who say.”
Luke 7:32 sn ‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance…’ The children of this generation were making the complaint (see vv. 33-34) that others were not playing the game according to the way they played the music. John and Jesus did not follow “their tune.” Jesus’ complaint was that this generation wanted things their way, not God’s.
Luke 7:32 tn The verb ἐθρηνήσαμεν (ethrēnēsamen) refers to the loud wailing and lamenting used to mourn the dead in public in 1st century Jewish culture.

New English Translation (NET)