Matthew 24:16 Meaning

That they might know how certain and sudden the overthrow of Jerusalem should be, our Lord gives advertisement that all the speed any man could make, should be little enough; for escaping whereof he gives seven signs [Sign 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7].

Dickson, David – A Brief Exposition of the Evangel of Jesus Christ According to Matthew (1651)

Matthew 24:16 Meaning – Let Them Who Be in Judea Flee Unto The Mountains

The first [sign] is, No place in the country should be safe where the soldier might march and that to fly to the mountains was the fittest (v 16).

When the Lord is to pour out his wrath on a place, if, all circumstances being considered, a man shall find it both lawful and possible to withdraw himself from that place, it is wisdom to be gone; for Let them who be in Judea flee unto the mountains, inasmuch as it shall be safer for them at that time to see to their own life by flight than to dream of resisting or escaping God’s judgment in that place.

Dickson, David – A Brief Exposition of the Evangel of Jesus Christ According to Matthew (1651)

The Christians did flee to Pella in Perea during the siege of Jerusalem.

Robertson, A.T. – Commentary on Matthew  in The Bible for Home & School  (1911)

But the people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation, vouchsafed to approved men there before the war, to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Perea called Pella. And when those that believed in Christ had come there from Jerusalem, then, as if the royal city of the Jews and the whole land of Judea were entirely destitute of holy men, the judgment of God at length overtook those who had committed such outrages against Christ and his apostles, and totally destroyed that generation of impious men.

Eusebius, Church History, Book 3, Chapter 5, #3

7,7 This sect of Nazoraeans is to be found in Beroea near Coelesyria, in the Decapolis near Pella, and in Bashanitis at the place called Cocabe —Khokhabe in Hebrew. (8) For that was its place of origin, since all the disciples had settled in Pella after their remove from Jerusalem—Christ having told them to abandon Jerusalem and withdraw from it because of the siege it was about to undergo. And they settled in Peraea for this reason and, as I said, lived their lives there. It was from this that the Nazoraean sect had its origin.

Epiphanius, Panarion 29,7,7-8

2,7 Their origin came after the fall of Jerusalem. For since practically all who had come to faith in Christ had settled in Peraea then, in Pella, a town in the “Decapolis” the Gospel mentions, which is near Batanaea and Bashanitis—as they had moved there then and were living there, this provided an opportunity for Ebion.

Epiphanius, Panarion 30, 2, 7

So Aquila, while he was in Jerusalem, also saw the disciples of the disciples of the apostles flourishing in the faith and working great signs, healings, and other miracles. For they were such as had come back from the city of Pella to Jerusalem and were living there and teaching. For when the city was about to be taken and destroyed by the Romans, it was revealed in advance to all the disciples by an angel of God that they should remove from the city, as it was going to be completely destroyed. They sojourned as emigrants in Pella, the city above mentioned in Transjordania. And this city is said to be of the Decapolis.

Epiphanius, On Weights and Measures 15