And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
Ver. 19. Woe to them that are with child, &c.] By the laws of nations women with child, babes and sucklings, maids and old folk, should be spared. But the bloody sword often knows no difference, as Hosea 10:14, the another was dashed in pieces upon her children, Hosea 13:16; their infants were dashed in pieces, and their women with child ripped up. So at the sack of Magdeburg by Charles V, and of Merindol in France by Minerius, where the paps of many women were cut off, and their children, looking for suck at their another's breast, being dead before, died also for hunger. Many such barbarous butcheries have been acted lately in Ireland, and begin to be also now in England (poor England, now an Ireland!) as at Bolton in Lancashire lately. Help, Lord, or thy servant perisheth.