³ Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the apostasy^[a] comes first and the man of lawlessness^[b] is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.

⁴ He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god^(A) or object of worship,^(B) so that he sits^[a] in God’s temple, proclaiming that he himself is God.

The Two Witnesses

11 Then I was given a measuring reed^(A) like a rod,^[a] with these words: “Go^[b] and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count those who worship there.

² But exclude the courtyard outside the temple.^(A) Don’t measure it, because it is given to the nations,^[a](B) and they will trample the holy city^(C) for forty-two months.^(D)

⁷ And it was permitted to wage war against the saints and to conquer them.^(A) It was also given authority^(B) over every tribe, people, language, and nation.^(C)

The Great Tribulation

¹⁵ “So when you see the abomination of desolation,^[a] spoken of by the prophet Daniel,^(A) standing in the holy place”^(B) (let the reader understand),

¹⁶ Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s temple^(A) and that the Spirit of God lives in you?^(B)

¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him;^(A) for God’s temple is holy,^(B) and that is what you are.