Mark 13

 

1: As Jesus was leaving the temple one of His disciples exclaimed, “Look, teacher what huge stones! What fine buildings!”

2: Jesus said to him, “You see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another; they will all be thrown down.”

3: As He sat down on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple he was questioned privately by Peter, James, John and Andrew.

4: “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen? What will be the sign that all these things are about to be fulfilled?”

5: Jesus began, “Be on your guard; let no one mislead you.

6: Many will come claiming my name , and saying, “I am he”; and many will be misled by them.

7: When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things are bound to happen; but the end is still to come.

8: For nation will go to war against nation, kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in many places; there will be famines. These are the first birth-pangs of the new age.

9: “As for you, be on your guard. You will be handed over to the courts; you will be beaten in synagogues; you will be summoned to appear before governors and kings on my account to testify in their presence.

10: Before the end the gospel must e proclaimed to all nations.

11: So when you are arrested and put on trial do not worry before hand about what you will say, but when the time comes say whatever is given for you to say, for it is not you who will be speaking, but the Holy Spirit.

12: Brother will hand over brother to death, and father his child; children will turn against their parents and send them to their death.

13: Everyone will hate you for your allegiance to me, but whoever endures to the end will be saved.

14: But when you see, “The abomination of desolation” usurping a place which is not his (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must take to the hills.

15: If anyone is on the roof, he must not go down to fetch anything out;

16: if anyone is in the field, he must not turn back for his coat.

17: Alas for women with child in those days, and for those who have children at the breast!

18: Pray that it may not come in winter.

19: For those days will bring distress such as there has never been before since the beginning of the world which God created, and will never be again.

20: If the Lord had not cut short that time of troubles, no living thing could survive. However, for the sake of His own, whom He has chosen, He has cut short the time.

21: “If anyone says to you then, “Look, here is the Messiah,” or, “Look, there he is,” do not believe it.

22: Impostors will come claiming to be messiahs or prophets, and they will produce signs and wonders to mislead, if possible, God’s chosen.

23: Be on your guard; I have forewarned you of it all.

24: But in those days, after that distress, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give her light;

25: the stars will come falling from the sky, the celestial powers will be shaken.

26: Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory,

27: and He will send out the angels and gather His chosen from the four winds, form the farthest bounds of the earth to the farthest bounds of heaven.

28: “Learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its tender shoots appear and are breaking into leaf, you know that summer is near.

29: In the same way, when you see all this happening, you may know hat the end is near, at the very door.

30: Truly I tell you: the present generation will live o see it all.

31: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

32: “Yet about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, not even the Son; no one but the Father.

33: “Be on your guard, keep watch. You do not now when the moment is coming.

34: It is like a man away from home: he has left his house and put his servants in charge, each with his own work to do, and he has ordered the door-keeper to stay awake.

35: Keep awake, then, for you do not know when the master of the house will come. Evening or midnight, cock-crow or early dawn –

36: if he comes suddenly, do not let him find you asleep.

37: And what I say to you, I say t everyone: Keep awake.”