Matthew 24:8
All these are the beginning of sorrows.
All these are the beginning of sorrows,.... They were only a prelude unto them, and forerunners of them; they were only some foretastes of what would be, and were far from being the worst that should be endured. These were but light, in comparison of what befell the Jews, in their dreadful destruction. The word here used, signifies the sorrows and pains of a woman in travail. The Jews expect great sorrows and distresses in the times of the Messiah, and use a word to express them by, which answers to this, and call them, xyvmh ylbx, "the sorrows of the Messiah"; ylbx, they say {r}, signifies the sorrows of a woman in travail; and the Syriac version uses the same word here. These they represent to be very great, and express much concern to be delivered from them. They {s} ask,
"what shall a man do, to be delivered from "the sorrows of the Messiah?" He must employ himself in the law, and in liberality.''
And again {t},
"he that observes the three meals on the sabbath day, shall be delivered from three punishments; from "the sorrows of the Messiah", from the judgment of hell, and from Gog and Magog.''
But alas there was no other way of escaping them, but by faith in the true Messiah, Jesus; and it was for their disbelief and rejection of him, that these came upon them.
{r} Gloss. in T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 118. 2.
{s} T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 98. 2.
{t} T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 118. 2.