Keep praying that your flight may not occur in wintertime, nor on the sabbath day;

In Judea was where the sabbath law applied, making it hard for persons to journey over great distances or carry loads and also closing the gates of walled cities even to fugitives fleeing there. How much more difficult this would make it for Jewish women in pregnancy or nursing babies to go in haste on foot! Also, the wintertime with its bad weather would make it difficult, not only for such women, but for all other persons in flight.