Matthew 12:41. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it.
See also Luke 11:32.
The Saviour may have alluded to a custom among the Jews and Romans, whereby the witnesses rose in their seats when they made accusation or bore testimony. The “Queen of the South” is in like manner represented as rising in judgment. See verse 42, and Luke 11:31. The dying Stephen saw “the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” Acts 7:56. May he not have risen to bear testimony against Stephen’s persecutors?
The same custom is alluded to in Luke 23:10.