² For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped; half the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.^(A)

²⁷ And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved,^{(A) 28} for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth quickly and decisively.”^{[a] 29} And as Isaiah predicted,

The Destruction of Jerusalem Foretold

²⁰ “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near.^{[a](A) 21} Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those inside the city must leave it, and those out in the country must not enter it,^{(B) 22} for these are days of vengeance, as a fulfillment of all that is written.^{(C) 23} Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress on the earth and wrath against this people; ²⁴ they will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken away as captives among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the nations, until the times of the nations are fulfilled.^(D)

The Desolating Sacrilege

¹⁴ “But when you see the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to be (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains;^(A)