²⁵ Now listen and understand! Seven sets of seven plus sixty-two sets of seven^[a] will pass from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until a ruler—the Anointed One^[b]—comes. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and strong defenses,^[c] despite the perilous times.

²⁶ “After this period of sixty-two sets of seven,^[d] the Anointed One will be killed, appearing to have accomplished nothing, and a ruler will arise whose armies will destroy the city and the Temple. The end will come with a flood, and war and its miseries are decreed from that time to the very end. ²⁷ The ruler will make a treaty with the people for a period of one set of seven,^[e] but after half this time, he will put an end to the sacrifices and offerings. And as a climax to all his terrible deeds,^[f] he will set up a sacrilegious object that causes desecration,^[g] until the fate decreed for this defiler is finally poured out on him.”

²⁹ “Immediately after the anguish of those days,

³⁰ And then at last, the sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.^[a]

³⁰ “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! ³¹ You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. ³² He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. ³³ And he will reign over Israel^[a] forever; his Kingdom will never end!”

A Branch from David’s Line

²⁹ “Dear brothers, think about this! You can be sure that the patriarch David wasn’t referring to himself, for he died and was buried, and his tomb is still here among us. ³⁰ But he was a prophet, and he knew God had promised with an oath that one of David’s own descendants would sit on his throne.

The Thousand Years

20 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven with the key to the bottomless pit^[a] and a heavy chain in his hand. ² He seized the dragon—that old serpent, who is the devil, Satan—and bound him in chains for a thousand years. ³ The angel threw him into the bottomless pit, which he then shut and locked so Satan could not deceive the nations anymore until the thousand years were finished. Afterward he must be released for a little while.

⁴ Then I saw thrones, and the people sitting on them had been given the authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony about Jesus and for proclaiming the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his statue, nor accepted his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They all came to life again, and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

⁶ Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. For them the second death holds no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him a thousand years.