This verse can surely be understood in any culture. Pregnant women (those who are with child) and women with small children (those who give suck) cannot move quickly or easily. Moreover, these statements reflect the fact that invading armies took particular delight in ripping open pregnant women and dashing the heads of babies against rocks.

Translators should use whatever expression is natural and polite for speaking of pregnant women, those who are with child. As for those who give suck, in some societies such a reference to a mother nursing her baby will be perfectly acceptable, but for others, this expression or its equivalent is not polite, and translators have to do something similar to Good News Translation, “mothers with little babies.”

Notice that Good News Translation has moved the expression “in those days” near to the beginning of the sentence. This is more natural in English.

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 .