Matthew 24:15–21 (LEB) — 15 “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken about by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place” (let the one who reads understand), 16 “then those in Judea must flee to the mountains! 17 The one who is on his housetop must not come down to take things out of his house, 18 and the one who is in the field must not turn back to pick up his cloak. 19 And woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing their babies in those days! 20 But pray that your flight may not happen in winter or on a Sabbath. 21 For at that time there will be great tribulation, such as has not happened from the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will happen.
Can you not see a first century Jewish context rather than a present/future context with all forms of transportation. One where nursing babies are not dependent upon breastfeeding and people do not normally congregate on their rooftop
Verse 20. But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter] For the hardness of the season, the badness of the roads, the shortness of the days, and the length of the nights, will all be great impediments to your flight. Rabbi Tanchum observes, “that the favour of God was particularly manifested in the destruction of the first temple, in not obliging the Jews to go out in the winter, but in the summer.” See the place in Lightfoot.
Neither on the Sabbath-day] That you may not raise the indignation of the Jews by travelling on that day, and so suffer that death out of the city which you had endeavoured to escape from within. Besides, on the Sabbath-days the Jews not only kept within doors, but the gates of all the cities and towns in every place were kept shut and barred; so that if their flight should be on a Sabbath, they could not expect admission into any place of security in the land.
Our Lord had ordered his followers to make their escape from Jerusalem when they should see it encompassed with armies; but how could this be done?—God took care to provide amply for this. In the twelfth year of Nero, Cestius Gallus, the president of Syria, came against Jerusalem with a powerful army. He might, says Josephus, WAR, b. ii. c. 19, have assaulted and taken the city, and thereby put an end to the war; but without any just reason, and contrary to the expectation of all, he raised the siege and departed. Josephus remarks, that after Cestius Gallus had raised the siege, “many of the principal Jewish people, πολλοι των επιφανων Ιουδαιων, forsook the city, as men do a sinking ship.” Vespasian was deputed in the room of Cestius Gallus, who, having subdued all the country, prepared to besiege Jerusalem, and invested it on every side. But the news of Nero’s death, and soon after that of Galba, and the disturbances that followed, and the civil wars between Otho and Vitellius, held Vespasian and his son Titus in suspense. Thus the city was not actually besieged in form till after Vespasian was confirmed in the empire, and Titus was appointed to command the forces in Judea. It was in those incidental delays that the Christians, and indeed several others, provided for their own safety, by flight. In Luke 19:43, our Lord says of Jerusalem, Thine enemies shall east a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side. Accordingly, Titus, having made several assaults without success, resolved to surround the city with a wall, which was, with incredible speed, completed in three days! The wall was thirty-nine furlongs in length, and was strengthened with thirteen forts at proper distances, so that all hope of safety was cut off; none could make his escape from the city, and no provisions could be brought into it. See Josephus, WAR, book v. c. 12.
Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible with a Commentary and Critical Notes (vol. 5, New Edition.; Bellingham, WA: Faithlife Corporation, 2014), 230.
