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Matthew 24

1Jesus left the temple and was going away when his disciples came to show him the temple buildings. 2He answered them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here upon another that will not be torn down.”

3As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately and said, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the completion of the age?” 4Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. 5For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and they will lead many astray. 6You will hear of wars and reports of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for these things must happen, but the end is not yet. 7For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8All these things are the beginning of birth pains.

9“Then they will hand you over to affliction and kill you, and you will be hated by all the nations because of my name. 10Then many will stumble, and they will hand one another over and hate one another. 11Many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12Because lawlessness increases, the love of many will grow cold. 13But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 14And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the inhabited world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

15“So when you see the desolating abomination spoken of through Daniel the prophet standing in a holy place—let the reader understand—16then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. 17The one on the housetop must not come down to take the things from his house, 18and the one in the field must not turn back to take his cloak. 19Woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing in those days! 20Pray that your flight will not happen in winter or on a Sabbath. 21For then there will be great affliction, such as has not happened from the beginning of the world until now, and never will happen again. 22And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved. But for the sake of the chosen ones, those days will be shortened.

23“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or ‘Here!’ do not believe it. 24For false messiahs and false prophets will arise and give great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the chosen ones. 25Look, I have told you beforehand. 26So if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27For just as lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 28Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

29“Immediately after the affliction of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will beat their breasts, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31He will send his angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

32“Learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch becomes tender and puts out leaves, you know that summer is near. 33So also, when you see all these things, know that he is near, at the doors. 34Truly I tell you that this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things happen. 35Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will certainly not pass away.

36“But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, neither the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father alone. 37For as the days of Noah were, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, 39and did not know until the flood came and swept them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40Then two will be in the field; one is taken and one is left. 41Two women will be grinding at the mill; one is taken and one is left. 42So keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43But know this: if the householder had known in which watch the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have allowed his house to be dug through. 44For this reason you also must be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

45“Who, then, is the faithful and wise slave whom the master put over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? 46Blessed is that slave whom his master finds doing so when he comes. 47Truly I tell you that he will put him over all his possessions. 48But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is delayed,’ 49and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eats and drinks with drunkards, 50the master of that slave will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not know, 51and will cut him in two and assign him his portion with the hypocrites. There will be weeping and grinding of teeth there.

Translation notes 7

24:3 — Coming and age. “Coming” translates parousia, which can denote arrival or presence. “Completion of the age” keeps age distinct from the world as a place. The disciples' joined questions are not divided into a supplied prophetic timetable.

24:7–14 — Birth pains and endurance. The birth image remains. “Affliction” repeats in verses 9, 21, and 29; it can also be rendered distress or tribulation. “Saved” is retained without specifying only physical survival or only final salvation. The base text omits “pestilences” from verse 7.

24:15–22 — Abomination; flight; flesh. The desolating abomination recalls Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11. The reading leaves its precise identity unspecified and retains the instruction to the reader. “No flesh” means no human being; it is not a contrast between bodies and souls. The chosen ones are those selected by God, without a theory of election inserted into the sentence.

24:28–31 — Corpse, heavens, and tribes. “Vultures” fits the carrion setting; “eagles” is another translation of the Greek bird word. The cosmic and cloud imagery recalls the prophets, including Daniel 7. “All the tribes of the earth” can also be “all the tribes of the land.” Beating the breast expresses mourning; its cause and the sign's precise identity are not supplied.

24:33–36 — Nearness, generation, and knowledge. “He is near” can also be “it is near.” “This generation” is retained without replacing it with “race” or naming a later generation. The scope of “all these things” and the relationship to Jerusalem's destruction and the final coming remain interpretive questions. SBLGNT includes “nor the Son,” which some manuscripts omit; the statement is not qualified to remove its difficulty.

24:40–44 — Taken and left; watching. The text does not explicitly identify the destination of the person taken or assign a complete sequence of end-time events. The second pair is explicitly female in the Greek; the first is left as “two.” A watch is a division of the night. “Dug through” retains the burglary image.

24:45–51 — Slaves and punishment. Slave and fellow slaves retain the household status. “Cut him in two” preserves the severity of the verb; “punish” alone would be weaker. The following assignment with hypocrites remains, without forcing the image into a literal account of how the punishment proceeds.