Samuel pronounces the consequences of a failure to repent upon the people. There is a judgment coming, and that judgment will be so terrible that all will be affected. In verse 1 their houses are left desolate, and in verse 2 the desolation is made more personal by describing the fate of the women. They will have need of refuge, but there will be not places. The picture is one of panicked flight.
This picture of the coming destruction in the land of Zarahemla echoes similar language and imagery predicting the calamities in Matthew:
Matthew 24:16-19
16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
Matthew 24:3 begins this unit as a description of the last days, but it is a situation that was accomplished in that historical time, as well as being descriptive of the final times. Concerning this interpretation:
“Some scholars think this is part of a warning sheet distributed among the Christian in Jerusalem just prior to the fall of the city ot the Romans in A.D. 70, on the basis of which advice the Jerusalem Christians fled to the city of Pella E of the Jordan. The need for sudden flight could explain the details about not entering the house, not stopping to take up one’s mantle, and the difficulty of flight in winter, when the Jordan would be at flood stage.” (The Interpreter’s One-Volume Commentary on the Bible. Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1971, p. 639).
Translation: While not exactly similar, it is interesting that both the Book of Mormon passage and that of Matthew should have the theme of wo to the women who were giving suck. There is more information in the Samuel’s text, so there is no direct copying, but the similarity of language is at least suggestive that once again Joseph’s familiarity with certain New Testament passages colored the language used in similar passages in the Book of Mormon.