<p>13:17 <i>But alas for women who are pregnant, and for those who are nursing infants in those days</i>- This may well match Paul's warning against marrying&nbsp;in the last days in 1 Cor. 7. He understood the Olivet prophecy as having the real prophecy of fulfilment in his generation. As He hung on the cross, our Lord quoted this part of His Olivet prophecy to the women who stood by (Lk. 23:29 &ldquo;blessed are those who never gave suck&rdquo; = Mt. 24:19 &ldquo;Woe to them&hellip; who give suck&rdquo;, s.w.), concerning the sufferings of the believers in the 'last days'. Here we see His matchless selflessness; going out of His own sufferings, to think, with anguish, how they would be experienced by His followers in the tribulation. &quot;Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves... for if they do these things (to) a green tree (the spiritually healthy Lord Jesus), what shall be done (to) the dry&quot;, the spiritually barren tree of Israel. This is a superb essay in the Lord's selflessness and minimizing of his own sufferings: he felt that what he was going through was less than what the spiritually weak would have to go through in the AD70 tribulation (and that of the last days). In the other 11 occurrences of &ldquo;woe&rdquo; in Matthew, the objects of the &ldquo;woe&rdquo; are clearly the unfaithful and the condemned; this category of those &ldquo;with child&rdquo; are therefore not amongst those who obediently &lsquo;flee&rsquo;. Lk. 21:23 states that they would be amongst those who would suffer the &ldquo;wrath upon this people&rdquo;. In Lk. 23:29 the Lord clearly envisaged the women of His generation, the ones who lined the road to Golgotha, as experiencing the trauma He predicted in the Olivet prophecy. And yet it is clear enough that the final fulfilment is yet to come- because His coming was rescheduled.</p>