Matthew 24–25

CHAPTER 24

Signs of Christ’s Return

^1aAnd coming ^bout from the temple, Jesus was going along, and His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him.

²And He answered and said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, ^anot one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”

³Now as He was sitting on ^athe Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of ^bYour coming and of the ¹end of the age?”

⁴And Jesus answered and said to them, “^aSee to it that no one deceives you.

⁵“For ^amany will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the ¹Christ,’ and will deceive many.

⁶“And you are going to hear of ^awars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.

⁷“For ^anation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be ^bfamines and earthquakes.

⁸“^aBut all these things are merely the beginning of birth pains.

⁹“^aThen they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and ^byou will be hated by all nations because of My name.

¹⁰“And at that time many will ^1afall away and will ²betray one another and hate one another.

¹¹“Many ^afalse prophets will arise and will deceive many.

¹²“And because lawlessness is multiplied, ¹most people’s love will grow cold.

¹³“^aBut the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.

¹⁴“And this ^agospel of the kingdom ^bshall be proclaimed in the whole ^1cworld as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

Abomination of Desolation and the Tribulation

¹⁵“Therefore when you see the ^aabomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in ^bthe holy place (^clet the reader understand),

¹⁶then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.

¹⁷“¹Whoever is on ^athe housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house.

¹⁸“And ¹whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his garment.

¹⁹“But ^awoe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!

²⁰“But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.

²¹“For then there will be a ^agreat tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.

²²“And unless those days had been cut short, no ¹life would have been saved; but for ^athe sake of the ²elect those days will be cut short.

²³“^aThen if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the ¹Christ,’ or ‘²There He is,’ do not believe him.

²⁴“For false christs and ^afalse prophets will arise and will ¹show great ^2bsigns and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even ^cthe ³elect.

²⁵“Behold, I have told you in advance.

²⁶“Therefore, 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 them.

²⁷“^aFor just as the lightning comes from the east and appears even to the west, so will the ^bcoming of the ^cSon of Man be.

²⁸“^aWherever the corpse is, there the ¹vultures will gather.

The Coming of the Son of Man

²⁹“But immediately after the ^atribulation of those days ^bthe sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and ^cthe stars will fall from ¹the sky, and the powers of ²the heavens will be shaken.

³⁰“And then ^athe sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see ^bthe Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.

³¹“And ^aHe will send forth His angels with ^ba great trumpet and they will gather together His ^1celect from ^dthe four winds, from one end of the sky to the ²other.

The Parable of the Fig Tree

³²“Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near;

³³so, you too, when you see all these things, ¹recognize that ²He is near, right ^aat the ³door.

³⁴“Truly I say to you, ^athis ¹generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

³⁵“^aHeaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.

³⁶“But ^aof that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

³⁷“For ^ajust as the days of Noah were, so the ^bcoming of the Son of Man will be.

³⁸“For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, ^amarrying and giving in marriage, until the day that ^bNoah entered the ark,

³⁹and they did not ¹understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the ^acoming of the Son of Man be.

⁴⁰“Then there will be two in the field; one ¹will be taken, and one ²will be left.

⁴¹“^aTwo women will be grinding grain at the ^1bmill; one ²will be taken and one ³will be left.

Be Ready for His Coming

⁴²“Therefore ^astay awake, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.

⁴³“But ¹be sure of this, that ^aif the head of the house had known ^bat what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have allowed his house to be ²broken into.

⁴⁴“For this reason ^ayou also must be ready; for ^bthe Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.

⁴⁵“^aWho then is the ^bfaithful and ^cprudent slave whom his ¹master ^dput in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time?

⁴⁶“Blessed is that slave whom his ¹master finds so doing when he comes.

⁴⁷“Truly I say to you that ^ahe will put him in charge of all his possessions.

⁴⁸“But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My ¹master ²is not coming for a long time,’

⁴⁹and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards;

⁵⁰the ¹master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know,

⁵¹and will ¹cut him in pieces and ²assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be ^aweeping and gnashing of teeth.

CHAPTER 25

Parable of Ten Virgins

¹“Then ^athe kingdom of heaven may be compared to ten virgins, who took their ^blamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

²“Now five of them were foolish, and five were ^aprudent.

³“For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them,

⁴but the ^aprudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps.

⁵“Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep.

⁶“But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’

⁷“Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.

⁸“And the foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’

⁹“But the ^aprudent answered, saying, ‘No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’

¹⁰“And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ^aready went in with him to ^bthe wedding feast; and ^cthe door was shut.

¹¹“And later the other virgins also ^*came, saying, ‘^aLord, lord, open up for us.’

¹²“But he answered and said, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’

¹³“^aTherefore, stay awake, for you do not know the day nor the hour.

Parable of the Talents

¹⁴“^aFor it is just like a man ^babout to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and handed over his possessions to them.

¹⁵“And to one he gave five ^1atalents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he ^bwent on his journey.

¹⁶“Immediately the one who had received the five ^atalents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents.

¹⁷“In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more.

¹⁸“But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his ¹master’s money.

¹⁹“Now after a long time the master of those slaves ^*came and ^*asettled accounts with them.

²⁰“And the one who had received the five ^atalents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed five talents over to me. See, I have gained five more talents.’

²¹“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and ^afaithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will ^bput you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your ¹master.’

²²“Also the one who had received the two ^atalents came up and said, ‘Master, you handed two talents over to me. See, I have gained two more talents.’

²³“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and ^afaithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’

²⁴“And the one also who had received the one ^atalent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed.

²⁵‘And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’

²⁶“But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed.

²⁷‘Therefore, you ought to have put my money ¹in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest.

²⁸‘Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’

²⁹“^aFor to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.

³⁰“And throw out the worthless slave into ^athe outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The Final Judgment

³¹“But when ^athe Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then ^bHe will sit on His glorious throne.

³²“And all the nations will be ^agathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, ^bas the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats;

³³and He will put the sheep ^aon His right, and the goats ^bon the left.

³⁴“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, ^ainherit the kingdom, which has been prepared for you ^bfrom the foundation of the world.

³⁵‘For ^aI was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; ^bI was a…