How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers!
Parallel translations
- WEB But woe to those who are with child and to nursing mothers in those days!
- KJV And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
- 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 women in those days, for whom flight will be hardest. It expresses compassion amid the coming distress.
Overview
The warning acknowledges the special hardship the crisis will bring on those least able to flee quickly. Jesus' words reveal tenderness toward the vulnerable even as he foretells judgment. It humanizes the coming tribulation and reflects the Lord's compassion for the weak.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Luke 23:29–30Look, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore, and breasts that never nursed!’
- Luke 21:23How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers! For there will be great distress upon the land and wrath against this people.
- Deut 28:53–56Then you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you.
- Mark 13:17–18How 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.
- Lam 4:3–4Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.
- Hos 13:16Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.
- 2 Sam 4:4And Jonathan son of Saul had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the report about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but as she was hurrying to escape, he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.
- 2 Kgs 15:16At that time Menahem, starting from Tirzah, attacked Tiphsah and everyone in its vicinity, because they would not open their gates. So he attacked Tiphsah and ripped open all the pregnant women.
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Christ at the center
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
How Matthew 24:19 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.