Luke 21:20-26
New Catholic Bible
20 The Great Trial.[a]“When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, you may be certain that her desolation is near. 21 Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are within the city must escape from its boundaries, and those who are in country areas must not return. 22 For those will be days of retribution when all that is written will come to pass.
23 “Woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing infants in those days. For there will be great distress on the earth, and terrible wrath shall afflict this people. 24 They will fall by the sword and be carried away as captives among all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles have been fulfilled.
25 The Coming of the Son of Man.[b]“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in great distress, bewildered at the roaring of the sea and its waves. 26 Men will grow faint with terror and apprehension at what is coming upon the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Luke 21:20 The evils that overtake the holy city are like a judgment of God upon it. But the tragic fate of Jerusalem and its temple inaugurates the laborious period in which is born the new world until all the pagans have heard the Good News of salvation and Israel itself is converted (see Rom 11:25-27).
- Luke 21:25 At the end of the final crisis, which is described in the violent images dear to the Prophets and the authors of the apocalypses (see Isa 13:10; 24:23; 34:4; Ezek 32:7-8; Joel 4:15), Jesus, the victorious Christ, will come to judge the world and deliver those who have remained faithful and are ready to welcome him (see Dan 7:13). The signs, especially persecutions, are pledges of hope and deliverance (see Rom 8:23; Eph 1:14; 4:30).
