20. Pilate addressed them once again because he wanted to release Jesus.
21. But they kept on shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!”
22. A third time he said to them, “Why? What wrong has he done? I have found him guilty of no crime deserving death. I will therefore flog him and release him.”
23. But they were insistent, demanding with loud shouts that he be crucified. And their shouts prevailed.
24. So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted.
25. He released the man they asked for, who had been thrown in prison for insurrection and murder. But he handed Jesus over to their will.
26. As they led him away, they seized Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country. They placed the cross on his back and made him carry it behind Jesus.
27. A great number of the people followed him, among them women who were mourning and wailing for him.
28. But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.
29. For this is certain: The days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore children, and the breasts that never nursed!’
30. Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’
31. For if such things are done when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
32. Two other criminals were also led away to be executed with him.
33. So when they came to the place that is called “The Skull,” they crucified him there, along with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.
34. [But Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”] Then they threw dice to divide his clothes.
35. The people also stood there watching, but the rulers ridiculed him, saying, “He saved others. Let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, his chosen one!”