²⁴ “Seventy ‘sevens’^[a] are decreed for your people and your holy city^(A) to finish^[b] transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone^(B) for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness,^(C) to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.^[c]

²⁵ “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild^(D) Jerusalem until the Anointed One,^[d](E) the ruler,^(F) comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.^{(G) 26} After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death^(H) and will have nothing.^[e] The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood:^(I) War will continue until the end, and desolations^(J) have been decreed.^{(K) 27} He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’^[f] In the middle of the ‘seven’^[g] he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple^[h] he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed^(L) is poured out on him.^[i]”^[j]

The Lord Comes and Reigns

14 A day of the Lord^(A) is coming, Jerusalem, when your possessions^(B) will be plundered and divided up within your very walls.

² I will gather all the nations^(C) to Jerusalem to fight against it;^(D) the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped.^(E) Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.^{(F) 3} Then the Lord will go out and fight^(G) against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle.^(H)

¹⁵ “So when you see standing in the holy place^(A) ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’^[a](B) spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—

²⁴ They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled^(A) on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

³ Don’t let anyone deceive you^(A) in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion^(B) occurs and the man of lawlessness^[a] is revealed,^(C) the man doomed to destruction. ⁴ He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God^(D) or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.^(E)

The Beast out of the Earth

¹¹ Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth.^(A) It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon.^{(B) 12} It exercised all the authority^(C) of the first beast on its behalf,^(D) and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast,^(E) whose fatal wound had been healed.^{(F) 13} And it performed great signs,^(G) even causing fire to come down from heaven^(H) to the earth in full view of the people. ¹⁴ Because of the signs^(I) it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived^(J) the inhabitants of the earth.^(K) It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived.^{(L) 15} The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship^(M) the image to be killed.^(N)

¹⁴ They are demonic spirits^(A) that perform signs,^(B) and they go out to the kings of the whole world,^(C) to gather them for the battle^(D) on the great day^(E) of God Almighty.

¹⁶ Then they gathered the kings together^(A) to the place that in Hebrew^(B) is called Armageddon.^(C)