Luke 21:23
But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.
The woe is spoken to those with child and to those giving suck in those days, for special hardship and grief would fall on pregnant women and nursing mothers amid great distress in the land and wrath upon the people in Jerusalem's destruction. The warning belongs to the prophecy of Jerusalem's siege and fall, when the city would be surrounded and thousands would perish. That word was fulfilled about forty years later when the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem.
The desolation came because the people rejected Christ, though had they received Him the city could have stood secure and become a source of peace to the nations. The warning gave a sign and instruction to flee, so that when Jerusalem was surrounded those who heeded had opportunity to escape before the later calamities. The foretold distress and wrath included starvation and multitudes being crucified, suffering the same kind of death inflicted on Christ, and when calamity came the people remembered the warning.
Calamities befalling individuals were warnings to an equally guilty nation, urging repentance while there was still time to find refuge in Christ and know what belonged to its peace, since suffering followed neglect to let God-given light shine to the world. The discourse reaches beyond the fall of Jerusalem to the final judgment and presents what may be expected in the time before Christ's coming. The warning is also applied to the present time, when bringing children into the world is an occasion of grief rather than joy because children receive little parental care, are under Satan's influence, and may soon die.