‘When they are saying “Peace and Safety (or ‘Certainty')”, then sudden destruction comes on them, as birth-pains on a woman with child, and they shall in no way escape.'
This defines further the day of the Lord in terms of God's final judgments. The world, content and self satisfied, says ‘Peace and safety', and then suddenly and unexpectedly, as with the final moments before birth, sudden destruction comes from which they cannot escape. Whether this comprises final desolation on earth in the midst of warfare and violence, or the activity of God as judge we are not told. ‘Destruction' (olethros) describes the sentence after judgment in 2 Thessalonians 1:9; 1 Timothy 6:9.
‘Peace and safety.' The idea of falsely saying ‘peace' occurs regularly in the Old Testament, see Ezekiel 13:10; Jeremiah 6:14; Jeremiah 8:11; Micah 3:5. The word translated safety can mean ‘certainty' (Luke 1:4), ‘safely secured'. Possibly it is intended to be seen as an ironic declaration of false certainty over against the truth. The suddenness of the destruction is an argument against seeing this as referring to destruction over a period of time. It suggests the final judgment.