What Does Matthew 24:19 Mean in the King James?

And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

Matthew 24:19 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

This woe names how upheaval weighs more heavily on bodies carrying a child or feeding one.

THE MEANING

Crisis does not reach every body on equal terms: pregnancy and nursing bring needs and dependence that cannot simply be set aside. The verse gives those carrying and feeding another life a particular place in the distress of those days. Its woe names their added exposure, not a fault in them.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the assumption that everyone faces danger with the same freedom to move or the same burden to bear.

THE ROOT

ἐν γαστρὶ ἐχούσαις

en gastri echousais

GROWS FROM

γαστρ-

gastr-

Belly or stomach; in this phrase, the body carrying a child within.

“with child” in this verse is en gastri echousais. The Greek phrase is literally “having in the belly,” making the condition tangible in the body. Beside the nursing women, it names two forms of intimate dependence: carrying and feeding.

ALSO GROWS

gastēr: Belly, stomach; also used for the womb.

γαστήρ

This is the noun beneath the phrase, keeping pregnancy connected to the body’s concrete interior.

gastrimargia: Gluttony, literally a belly-driven appetite.

γαστριμαργία

The same belly stem can name appetite as well as the place that carries a child, linking bodily need and vulnerability.

θηλαζούσαις

thēlazousais

GROWS FROM

θηλαζ-

thēlaz-

To suckle or nurse at the breast.

“give suck” in this verse is thēlazousais. The Greek names the ongoing bodily act of nursing. Together with “having in the belly,” it brings the verse close to the physical dependence involved in both carrying and feeding a child.

ALSO GROWS

thēlazō: To suckle or nurse.

θηλάζω

This is the verb behind “give suck,” naming feeding as an active, continuing bodily care.

thēlē: Breast or teat.

θηλή

This related noun makes the physical source of nursing explicit, alongside the infant who depends on it.

THE PATTERN

Scripture makes collective upheaval tangible through images of pregnancy and labor that locate distress in the body.

And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.

Isaiah 13:8 · KJVThe crisis is felt as the pains of labor, making upheaval bodily and immediate.

All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Matthew 24:8 · KJVThe Greek ⁨ὠδίν⁩ (ōdin, birth pang) gives “sorrows” the image of labor beginning.

For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

1 Thessalonians 5:3 · KJVThe suddenness of the crisis is pictured as labor overtaking a woman with child.

THE THREAD

And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

Matthew 24:22 · KJV

“Those days” repeats the same Greek time-marker that closes this verse, tying the bodily woe to the wider crisis. The next verse says those days are shortened, placing this particular exposure within an upheaval with a stated limit.

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