How terrible it will be for pregnant women and for nursing mothers in those days.
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!
- 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!
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 23:29–30For 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.’
- 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.
- Deut 28:53–56You will eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom Yahweh your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies will distress you.
- Mark 13:17–18But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babies in those days!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.”
- 2 Sam 4:4Now Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the news came about Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel; and his nurse picked him up and fled. As she hurried to flee, he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.
- 2 Kgs 15:16Then Menahem attacked Tiphsah, and all who were in it, and its border areas, from Tirzah. He attacked it because they didn’t open their gates to him, and he ripped up all their women who were with child.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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.