But woe unto them that are with-child
(See Gill on Matthew 24:19).
For there shall be great distress in the land;
of Judea. The Greek word (anagkh) , here used, properly signifies "necessity", but here intends afflictions and distress; in which sense it is often used by the Septuagint, as in ( Psalms 107:6 Psalms 107:13 Psalms 107:19 Psalms 107:28 ) ( 119:143 ) ( Jeremiah 9:15 ) and it is also by the Targumists adopted into their language, and used in the same sense F4: and indeed, the distress was very great, and such a time of tribulation, as was never known since the beginning of the world, nor never will be the like; what with the enemy without, and their seditions and divisions within, the robberies, murders, and famine, which prevailed and abounded, their miseries are not to be expressed:
and wrath upon this people;
of the Jews; even the wrath of God, as well as of man, which came upon them to the uttermost; and their own historian observes, that God, who had condemned the people, turned every way of salvation to their destruction F5.