Good News Translation and many other translations render Pray as “Pray to God.”

The problem with the noun flight is that for many modern readers the first meaning will be the departure of a plane, especially in the combination that your flight may not be. Therefore Good News Translation has “that you will not have to run away,” which is similar to New English Bible (“when you have to make your escape”) and Jerusalem Bible (“that you will not have to escape”). An American Translation and Moffatt are worse than the literal rendering of Revised Standard Version: “that you may not have to fly in winter.”

Winter (so most translations) represents a noun which may also mean “rainy and stormy weather” (see 16.3; Acts 27.20). A number of commentators point out that winter is the time of swollen rivers, which would make escape difficult. But at least one commentator believes that the reference is rather to the scarcity of provisions during the winter season. In either case, all scholars agree that the comment somehow reflects the Palestinian situation. In fact, in areas where the season of winter is completely unknown, many translators say “the cold and rainy season.”

According to traditional Jewish interpretation, the law of human life held priority over the laws which governed the Sabbath. Therefore in the interest of protecting human life, the Sabbath could be broken. Only the strictest interpretation of the Law would not allow for a person to run on a sabbath in order to escape death. That Matthew would add this note, hints at the high esteem that the Law must have held among his intended audience. Sabbath was discussed first at 12.1.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .