All this refers to the natural disasters and wars that will be happening all over the world. Translators can say “All these things” (Good News Translation) or “All these events.” The function of this verse is to turn the Christian community away from empty speculation regarding the end. At the most, the presence of wars, famines, and earthquakes may be compared to the first pains of childbirth and are not to inspire anxious predictions and details of coming events.

Rendering this verse as a simile, as Good News Translation has, will be helpful for many readers: “All these events are like the first pains of childbirth of the new age.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .