Mark 13:9-23

9So be careful! People will be against you. They will take you to stand in front of their leaders. They will punish you with whips in their meeting places. They will take you to stand in front of kings and rulers. This will happen because you are my disciples. You will tell them the good news about me.

10Yes, you must first tell the good news about me to people in every country.

11When people take you to their leaders to show that you have done bad things, do not be afraid. Do not worry about what you should say. You should say the words that God gives you at that time. You will not be speaking your own words. Those words will come from the Holy Spirit.

12At that time, a man will let people kill his own brother. A father will let people kill his own child. Children will be against their parents. They will even ask people to kill their parents.

13All people will hate you because you are my disciples. But God will save the person who remains strong until the end.

14There will be a time when you will see in the temple a disgusting thing that causes trouble. You will see it in a place where it should not be. (When you read this, you must understand what it means.) At that time, people in Judea must run away to the hills to hide.

15A person who is on the roof of his house must not go down into the house. He must not stop to get anything from his home.

16A person who is outside in his field must not go back to his home. He must not return even to fetch his coat.

17That will be a bad time for women who are soon to have a baby. It will also be a bad time for those women who have little babies.

18You must pray to God that this time of trouble will not happen in winter.

19Very bad troubles will happen to people at that time and cause them a lot of pain. Nothing as bad has ever happened before, since God created the world. Nothing as bad will ever happen again.

20The Lord God will cause those days of very bad trouble to come to an end. If he did not do that, there would be nobody still alive. But God will cause those days to be not too many. He will do that to help the people that he has chosen.

21At that time, someone may say to you, “Look, here is the Messiah!” Or they may say, “Look, he is there!” If they say that, do not believe them.

22Some people will even say, “I am the Messiah.” Other people will say, “I am a prophet from God.” But their words will be false. They will do strange and powerful things for people to see. If possible, they would even deceive the people that God has chosen.

23So watch out! I have told you about all these things before they happen.