I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

People's New Testament

13:3 I tell you, Nay. He does not deny that they were sinners, but that they were greater sinners than others.

Except ye repent. All were so great sinners that only repentance could save them. It was only a generation until the words of the Lord were strikingly fulfilled. The impenitent Jewish nation was destroyed by the Roman sword, as were those Galileans.

Wesley's Notes

13:3 Ye shall all likewise perish - All ye of Galilee and of Jerusalem shall perish in the very same manner. So the Greek word implies. And so they did. There was a remarkable resemblance between the fate of these Galileans and of the main body of the Jewish nation; the flower of which was slain at Jerusalem by the Roman sword, while they were assembled at one of their great festivals. And many thousands of them perished in the temple itself, and were literally buried under its ruins.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:1-5 Mention was made to Christ of the death of some Galileans. This tragical story is briefly related here, and is not met with in any historians. In Christ's reply he spoke of another event, which, like it, gave an instance of people taken away by sudden death. Towers, that are built for safety, often prove to be men's destruction. He cautioned his hearers not to blame great sufferers, as if they were therefore to be accounted great sinners. As no place or employment can secure from the stroke of death, we should consider the sudden removals of others as warnings to ourselves. On these accounts Christ founded a call to repentance. The same Jesus that bids us repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, bids us repent, for otherwise we shall perish.