Exegesis:

ouai (14.21) ‘woe!’ ‘alas!’: an interjection expressing pain or displeasure.

tais en gastri enchousais ‘for those who are pregnant,’ ‘for those who are with child.’

tais thēlazousais ‘for those who are nursing (children),’ ‘for those who suckle’: for mothers with small nursing children, and for expectant mothers, flight would be difficult and perilous.

Translation:

Alas is translatable in one of three different ways: (1) by a similar exclamative particle, indicating pity and sympathy (but such particles are not too frequent in languages), (2) by a verbal expression of ‘suffering,’ e.g. ‘those who are pregnant … will suffer’ (Copainalá Zoque), and (3) by an adjectival expression denoting the state of the persons involved, e.g. ‘poor those who are pregnant…’ (Tzeltal).

Are with child is rarely translatable in a literal form. In fact, literal translations usually imply women who are carrying children in their arms and is hence a more or less redundant expression of what occurs in the following phrase. However, there are always expressions for pregnancy in all languages. The trouble is that there are so many, some of which are regarded as vulgar, others as humorous, and still others as proper, though in this latter instance propriety may be dictated by whether a man or a woman is speaking.

In those days should be so construed as to be applicable to both ‘those who are pregnant’ and ‘those who are nursing.’

Give suck must be translated with care in order to avoid possible vulgar expressions and also so as to make certain that the words of Jesus are those which are fitting for a man to utter, since often distinctions are made between men’s and women’s speech at this point.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .