For in those days shall be affliction,.... What with the close siege of the Romans; the fury of the zealots, and seditious; the rage of different parties among the Jews themselves; the ravage of the sword, both within and without, together with dreadful plagues and famines:

such as was not from the beginning of the creation, which God created, unto this time, neither shall be; of which there never was the like in any age, and cannot be paralleled in any history, since the beginning of time, or the world was made, or any thing in it, down to that period; nor ever will the like befall any one particular nation under the heavens, to the end of the world; See Gill on Matthew 24:21.

The creation which God created

Note the peculiar amplification, and compare Mark 13:20, the elect or chosen whom he chose.

For in {f} those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.

(f) This is an idiom which the Hebrews use and it has a great power in it, for it shows us that during that entire time one misery will follow another in such a way as if the time itself was very misery itself. So the prophet Amos says that the day of the Lord will be darkness; Am 5:20.

13:19 In those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation - May it not be doubted, whether this be yet fully accomplished? Is not much of this affliction still to come?

Margin affliction

tribulation. Cf. Mt 24:21 See "Tribulation." Ps 2:5 Rev 7:14

19. For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be-Such language is not unusual in the Old Testament with reference to tremendous calamities. But it is matter of literal fact that there was crowded into the period of the Jewish war an amount and complication of suffering perhaps unparalleled; as the narrative of Josephus, examined closely and arranged under different heads, would show.

13:14-23 The Jews in rebelling against the Romans, and in persecuting the Christians, hastened their own ruin apace. Here we have a prediction of that ruin which came upon them within less than forty years after this. Such destruction and desolation, that the like cannot be found in any history. Promises of power to persevere, and cautions against falling away, well agree with each other. But the more we consider these things, the more we shall see abundant cause to flee without delay for refuge to Christ, and to renounce every earthly object, for the salvation of our souls.