Albert Barnes Commentary Matthew 24:18

"and let him that is in the field not return back to take his cloak." — Matthew 24:18 (ASV)

Return back to take his clothes. His clothes which, in working, he had laid aside; or which in fleeing he should throw off as an encumbrance. Clothes here means the outer garment, commonly laid aside when men worked, or ran. (See Barnes on Matthew 5:40).

These directions were followed. It is said that the Christians, warned by these predictions, fled from the city to Pella, and other places beyond Jordan; so that there is not evidence that a single Christian perished in Jerusalem. (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Book 3, Chapter 6).