Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 24:19

"But woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days!" — Matthew 24:19 (ASV)

Woe unto them—Better, alas for them, or woe for them. The tone is that of pity rather than denunciation. The hardships of a hurried flight would press most heavily on those who were encumbered with infant children or were expecting childbirth. The same tenderness of sympathy shows itself in the words spoken to the daughters of Jerusalem in Luke 23:28-29. Perhaps the words point to the darker horrors of the siege, when mothers were driven, in the frenzy of starvation, to feed on their infants’ flesh (Josephus, Wars, 6.3.4).