If those days had not been cut short, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.
22 And unless those days had been shortened. He presents an appalling view of those calamities, but at the same time mingles it with this consolation, that they would be sufficient to exterminate the very name of the Jews, if God did not look to his elect, and on their account grant some alleviation.
And except those days should be shortened,.... That is, those days of tribulation which commenced at the siege of Jerusalem; and therefore cannot refer to the times before it, and the shortening of them by it, which were very dreadful and deplorable through the murders and robberies of the cut-throats and zealots; but to those after the siege began, which were very distressing to those...
Verse 22. Except those days should be shortened. If the calamities of the siege should be lengthened out. If famine and war should be suffered to rage. No flesh be saved. None of the nations would be preserved alive. All the inhabitants of Judea would perish. The war, famine, and pestilence would entirely destroy them. But for the elect's sake. The elect here doubtless means Christians. See .