⁴And Jesus answered and^* said to them, “Watch out that no one deceives you! ⁵For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will deceive many. ⁶And you are going to hear about wars and rumors of wars. See to it that you are not alarmed, for this must happen, but the end is not yet. ⁷For nation will rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.^a ⁸But all these things are the beginning of birth pains.

Persecution of Disciples Predicted

⁹“Then they will hand you over to persecution and will kill you, and you will be hated by all the nations^b because of my name. ¹⁰And then many will be led into sin and will betray one another and will hate one another, ¹¹and many false prophets will appear and will deceive many, ¹²and because lawlessness will increase, the love of many will grow cold. ¹³But the one who endures to the end—this person will be saved. ¹⁴And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations,^c and then the end will come.

The Abomination of Desolation

¹⁵“So when you see the abomination of desolation^d spoken about by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place” (let the one who reads understand), ¹⁶“then those in Judea must flee to the mountains! ¹⁷The one who is on his^* housetop must not come down to take things out of his house, ¹⁸and the one who is in the field must not turn back to pick up his cloak. ¹⁹And woe to those who are pregnant^e and to those who are nursing their babies^* in those days! ²⁰But pray that your flight may not happen in winter or on a Sabbath. ²¹For at that time there will be great tribulation, such as has not happened from the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will happen. ²²And unless those days had been shortened, no human being would be saved.^f But for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened.

²³“At that time if anyone should say to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘Here he is,’ do not believe him!^* ²⁴For false messiahs and false prophets will appear, and will produce great signs and wonders in order to deceive, if possible, even the elect. ²⁵Behold, I have told you ahead of time! ²⁶Therefore if they say to you, ‘Behold, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or^* ‘Behold, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it!^*

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Footnotes

*Here “and” is supplied because the previous participle (“answered”) has been translated as a finite verb
aOr “in place after place”
bOr “Gentiles”; the same Greek word can be translated “nations” or “Gentiles” depending on the context
cOr “Gentiles”; the same Greek word can be translated “nations” or “Gentiles” depending on the context
dAn allusion to Dan 9:27
*Literally “the”; the Greek article is used here as a possessive pronoun
eLiterally “who have in the womb”
*The words “their babies” are not in the Greek text but are supplied as a necessary clarification
fLiterally “every flesh would not be saved”
*Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation
*Here “or” is supplied because of English style
*Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation