Matthew 24:19 · Bible study
Matthew 24:19 Commentary: Jesus' Woe for the Vulnerable
Greek · 6 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Does Jesus pronounce judgment or pity on pregnant and nursing mothers? A study of Matthew 24:19 in its context of tribulation and flight.
Research Summary
- Meaning: Jesus expresses grief for pregnant and nursing mothers because they face the greatest danger when the siege comes.
- Key words: ouai (woe, a cry of grief, not a curse), gastri echousais (having in the womb, pregnant), thēlazousais (giving suck, nursing).
- Main debate: Judgment vs. pity. Commentators from all traditions agree it is pity, though some readers unfamiliar with the context may misread it as judgment.
- Theological theme: God's compassion on the vulnerable even within judgment. The Old Testament's horror stories become a call for mercy.
- Best use: Pastoral care in crisis situations; intercessory prayer for families in war and displacement; sermon illustration of divine empathy.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers!
WEB World English Bible 2000
But woe to those who are with child and to nursing mothers in those days!
KJV King James Version 1769
And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
ASV American Standard Version 1901
But woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days!
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
`And woe to those with child, and to those giving suck in those days;
Darby Darby Bible 1890
But woe to those that are with child, and those that give suck in those days.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
And woe to them that are with child and that give suck in those days.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Mas ¡ ay de las preñadas|strong="G1722, G1064, G2192", y de las que crían en aquellos días!
Mas ai das grávidas e das que amamentarem naqueles dias!
Malheur aux femmes qui seront enceintes et à celles qui allaiteront en ces jours-là!
Weh aber den Schwangeren und Säugerinnen zu der Zeit!
Maar wee de bevruchten, en den zogenden vrouwen in die dagen!
Or guai alle donne che saranno incinte, ed a quelle che allatteranno in que’ giorni!
A biada brzemiennym i piersiami karmiącym w one dni!
Горе же беременным и питающим сосцами в те дни!
當 那些 日子，懷 孕 的和 奶孩子 的有禍了。
But it will be hard for women who are with child and for those with babies at the breast in those days.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Koine Greek)
New Testament · Koine Greek · Matthew 24:19
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Every supplied commentator reads this verse as an expression of pity, not judgment. Gill is explicit: the woe is 'not expressive of sin, or punishment, but of pity and concern for their misery and distress.' Wesley echoes that the difficulty is simply that these women 'cannot so readily make their escape.' Clarke drives the point home by citing Josephus' account of mothers eating their own children during the siege of Jerusalem, a horror that confirms why Jesus singles out those with infants and newborns. The word ouai (woe) in Greek functions as a cry of grief, not a curse. There is a striking absence of any moral condemnation. What moves Jesus is not what these women have done, but what they will endure.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Low
What is clear: Jesus singles out pregnant and nursing mothers because their physical condition makes escape nearly impossible, and he expresses grief over their suffering.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose of the woe | Jesus is expressing concern for the physical hardship these women will face. | All supplied commentators treat it as pity; no tradition represented reads it as a judgment on the women's state. |
| Primary historical referent | The immediate referent is the coming destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. | Some traditions see this as exclusively about AD 70; others see it as a type for end-times tribulation where similar flight will occur. |
| Relevance for modern childbirth | The verse shows God's care for vulnerable mothers in times of crisis. | Some apply it to any time of persecution or disaster; others limit it to the specific eschatological events of the first century. |
| Tone of the word 'woe' | The Greek <em>ouai</em> carries an emotional charge. | No debate among supplied sources: all treat it as lament. A hypothetical alternative view (woe as judgment) would require reading against the grain of the flight context. |
Historical & Cultural Context
Jesus is speaking on the Mount of Olives, just days before his arrest. The preceding verses urge immediate flight when the 'abomination of desolation' stands in the temple, a signal borrowed from Daniel that for Matthew's original readers meant the Roman army's approach. Flight in ancient warfare was brutal for anyone, but for women carrying or nursing a child it was catastrophic.
Pregnant women in Jewish society were excused from certain fasts (Gill cites the Jerusalem Talmud on ubarot umeniqot, 'pregnant and nursing women'). That legal mercy highlights a real physical vulnerability: a woman with child moves slower, grows tired faster, and cannot easily hide or run. Nursing mothers face the added burden of keeping an infant alive, no formula, no pumping, just the constant need for the mother's body. Josephus, writing a generation after Jesus, reports that during the Roman siege 'the houses were full of women and children that perished by the famine; and the mothers snatched the food even out of their own children's mouths.' He records the story of Mary, daughter of Eleazar, who boiled and ate her own baby. That context makes Jesus' woe sound not like a warning of punishment but like a sob.
The Old Testament had long used the image of pregnant women ripped open in war (2 Kings 15:16, Hosea 13:16) or mothers reduced to cannibalism (Deuteronomy 28:53, 57, Lamentations 4:10). These were the worst nightmares of Judah's prophets. Jesus takes that inherited language and turns it into tender warning: flee while you can, because the worst of those old terrors is coming.
Textual Notes
The supplied sources note no significant textual variants for Matthew 24:19. The Greek text is stable across manuscripts, and the verse appears consistently in all early witnesses. The only variation is minor: some manuscripts omit the conjunction de (then/but) that begins the verse, but the meaning is unchanged.
Reception History
The early church read this verse primarily in the context of the destruction of Jerusalem. Origen and Eusebius saw it as fulfilled in the horrors of AD 70. During the Reformation, commentators such as Calvin and Matthew Henry emphasized the compassion of Christ, noting that the woe is not a curse but a cry over inevitable suffering. Wesley and Clarke continued this tradition in the 18th and 19th centuries, drawing on Josephus to illustrate the grim reality. Modern interpreters across denominations have used the verse to highlight God's concern for the most vulnerable in times of war and displacement. It appears rarely in liturgy but is often cited in pastoral care materials for families facing crisis.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- The woe as compassionate warning. Jesus uses a cry of grief, not a curse. The focus is on the physical and emotional weight that makes escape nearly impossible for these women. Pastoral implication: God does not blame the vulnerable for being vulnerable.
- The vulnerability of the most vulnerable in crisis. Siege and flight expose the ones already weakest. The same pattern appears today: refugees with infants, families in war zones, mothers in famine. Jesus sees them before it happens.
- God's care for those who cannot save themselves. The verse is embedded in instructions to pray for easier circumstances (v.20). Jesus does not tell these women to try harder. He acknowledges their helplessness and calls the church to intercede for them.
Five-point outline
- Context: The abomination of desolation triggers immediate flight (vv.15, 18).
- The specific woe: Pregnant and nursing mothers, why them? (v.19)
- Woe as lament, not indictment: What the Greek word ouai conveys.
- Old Testament echoes: Deuteronomy 28, Lamentations 4, Hosea 13 show what siege does to mothers and children.
- Pastoral response: Pray for those in such circumstances, and work to protect the vulnerable when disaster strikes.
Illustration hooks
- A family evacuating a hurricane: parents carrying a toddler and a newborn, packing only what fits in one car. Every extra minute spent buckling the baby seat is a minute the storm gets closer.
- A report from a refugee camp: mothers who walked for days with infants, their breasts dry, begging for clean water for their children. The world rarely sees them until disaster is complete.
- The empty cribs left behind in the flight from Jerusalem, AD 70. Archaeologists have found houses abandoned mid-meal. The most vulnerable leave the most traces.
Questions your congregation is asking
- Does God cause suffering, or is this verse just describing what humans do to each other?
- Why would Jesus allow such suffering if he cares about these women?
- How do we pray for Christian mothers in war zones today without feeling helpless?
Leading a Discussion
This verse sits in the middle of urgent escape instructions. Jesus does not pause to explain why he feels sorrow for these women, he simply expresses it. The group's task is to hear the tone of his voice. Is he angry, sad, resigned, or something else?
Discussion questions
- What does the word 'woe' (ouai) mean in its biblical context? Look at other uses in the Gospels (Matthew 23 for example). How is this verse different?
- The verse does not say the women have sinned. Why do you think Jesus mentions them specifically? What makes their situation harder than the men on rooftops or in fields?
- Read Lamentations 4:3, 4, 10. What images do those verses add to your understanding of what nursing mothers faced in ancient sieges?
- How does the story from Josephus about Mary of Eleazar affect the way you hear Jesus' words?
- If you were a mother with a newborn in Jerusalem in AD 70, what would you need the most from your community? How could that shape how the church cares for families in crisis today?
- Does it bother you that Jesus does not intervene to protect them directly? Or does his acknowledgment of their suffering change something?
- How can this verse inform the way we pray for parents and children in war zones, refugee camps, or famine regions right now?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Deuteronomy 28:53 | You 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. |
| Deuteronomy 28:56 | The 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, |
| II Samuel 4:4 | Now 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. |
| II Kings 15:16 | Then 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. |
| Lamentations 4:3 | Even the jackals offer their breast. They nurse their young ones. But the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. |
| Lamentations 4:4 | The tongue of the nursing child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst. The young children ask for bread, and no one breaks it for them. |
| Lamentations 4:10 | The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children. They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people. |
| Hosea 13:16 | Samaria 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.” |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
5 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke stresses that the horrors described are not figurative. He points to Josephus's account of mothers snatching food from their own children's mouths, and one woman who, driven by famine, killed and ate her own baby.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva note highlights the specific vulnerability of pregnant and nursing women during the coming distress. Their condition makes flight or escape especially difficult, so their suffering will be uniquely severe.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill insists that the woe pronounced on pregnant and nursing women is not a judgment or punishment for sin, but an expression of pity. Their condition would make escape nearly impossible during a siege, and he notes that Jewish tradition itself excused such women from certain fasts out of compassion.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange structures Jesus' discourse as three progressive cycles, each portraying the entire future yet drawing nearer to the final catastrophe. The first cycle covers general world history; the second treats Jerusalem's destruction as the onset of world judgment; the third describes the sudden end. This cyclical pattern, he argues, is essential to understanding the prophecy.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley points out that pregnant and nursing women face extra hardship during the coming crisis because they simply cannot run or travel quickly. Their natural condition makes escape far more difficult, which is why Jesus pronounces a special woe on them.