1 Thessalonians 5:3

For when they shall say Rather, when they are saying (R. V.). In the very act of their saying "Peace and safety" just when men of the world pronounce everything secure and quiet then the thief comes, who steals from them the possessions they imagined safe from all attack. A reminiscence of Ezekiel 13:10, "Saying Peace, and there was no peace!" Such times of security are pregnant with judgement to the wicked, and premonitory of some "day of the Lord."

then sudden destruction cometh upon them Or, in the vivid order of St Paul's Greek, then suddenly over them stands destruction. Without a moment's warning ruin comes, not seen approaching, but first visible hanging overthe doomed transgressors! We hear again Christ's warning of Luke 21:34, "lest that day come upon you suddenly(a Greek word found only in these two places in the N. T.), as a snare; for so will it come on all them that dwell on the face of all the earth." Christ compares His advent to the coming of the Flood "in the days of Noah" (Matthew 24:36-39).

The Apostle describes the calamity under another figure, frequently applied in the O. T. to Divine inflictions: as the birth-pang upon her that is with child. This image signifies, beside the suddennessof the disaster, its intense pain, and its inevitableness. Accordingly he continues: and they shall in no wise escape. See 2 Thessalonians 1:9, and note; and comp. the terrible picture of the Judgement in Revelation 6:15-17.