How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers! For there will be great distress upon the land and wrath against this people.
Parallel translations
- WEB Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land, and wrath to this people.
- KJV But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.
- NKJV But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people.
- NASB Woe to those women who are pregnant, and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land, and wrath to this people;
- NLT How terrible it will be for pregnant women and for nursing mothers in those days. For there will be disaster in the land and great anger against this people.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Great distress is coming, especially hard for pregnant and nursing mothers.
Overview
Jesus laments the particular suffering the siege will bring to the most vulnerable. The 'wrath upon this people' refers to the judgment falling on Jerusalem for its unbelief. His words carry compassion even amid pronouncing inevitable disaster.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Mark 13:17How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers!
- Lam 4:10The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- Luke 23:29Look, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore, and breasts that never nursed!’
- Matt 24:19How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers!
- Heb 10:26–31If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains,
- Jas 5:1Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you.
- 1 Pet 4:17For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God?
- Deut 28:56–57The most gentle and refined woman among you, so gentle and refined she would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge the husband she embraces and her son and daughter
- 1 Th 2:16hindering us from telling the Gentiles how they may be saved. As a result, they continue to heap up their sins to full capacity; the utmost wrath has come upon them.
- Heb 9:12–17He did not enter by the blood of goats and calves, but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus securing eternal redemption.
- Matt 21:41“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and will rent out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the fruit at harvest time.”
- Luke 19:43For the days will come upon you when your enemies will barricade you and surround you and hem you in on every side.
- Matt 21:44He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”
- Heb 13:16And do not neglect to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
- Luke 19:27And these enemies of mine who were unwilling for me to rule over them, bring them here and slay them in front of me.’”
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 21:23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.