But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babies in those days!
Parallel translations
- KJV But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
- BSB How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers!
- NKJV But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!
- NASB But woe to those women who are pregnant, and to those who are nursing babies in those days!
- NLT How terrible it will be for pregnant women and for nursing mothers in those days.
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
Jesus laments for pregnant and nursing mothers in those days, for flight will be hardest on them. His compassion shows even amid judgment.
Overview
The 'woe' here is sorrowful lament, not condemnation, expressing Jesus' tender concern for the most vulnerable in a time of upheaval. Mothers with infants could not flee swiftly, making the coming distress especially cruel for them. Even as he foretells judgment, Jesus' heart goes out to the weak, reflecting the compassion of the Savior who cares for the suffering.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Lam 4:10The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children; They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- Luke 23:29For behold, the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’
- Lam 4:3–4Even the jackals draw out the breast, they nurse their young ones: But the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
- Luke 21:23Woe 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.
- Hos 13:16Samaria will bear her guilt; for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open.”
- Deut 28:56–57The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye will be evil toward the husband that she loves, toward her son, toward her daughter,
- Lam 2:19–20Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord: Lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children, that faint for hunger at the head of every street.
- Matt 24:19–21But woe to those who are with child and to nursing mothers in those days!
- Hos 9:14Give them — Yahweh what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
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Christ at the center
Mark drives urgently to the cross, showing Jesus the Son of God as the suffering Servant who 'came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'
How Mark 13:17 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
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