sake. 10 There shall be many also, that shall fall off, and betray, and hate one another. 11 Many false prophets shall arise, and seduce many people. 12 And because iniquity shall be extremely great, the love of many shall grow cool. 13 But he that shall have persevered to the end, shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom, shall be preached over all the world, to serve for a testimony to all nations, and then it is that the end shall come.

15 When therefore ye shall see, in the holy place, the abomination of desolation, foretold by the prophet

ver. 10. Matt. xi. 6. xiii. 57. 2 Tim. i. 15. iv. 19, 16. v. 11. Matt. vii. 15. Acts xx. 29. 1 Cor. xi. 19. 2 Cor. xi. 13. 1 Tim. iv. 1. 2 Tim. ii. 17. 2 Pet. ii. 1. Jude, ver. 4, 18. v. 12. 4 Esdr. v. 2, 10. xv. 6. Heb. x. 24, 25. v. 13. Rev. ii. 10. Dan. xii. 12. V. 14. Rom. x. 18. Col. i. 6, 23. v. 15. Mark xiii. 14. Luke xxi. 20. comp. xix. 3. Dan. ix. 25, 26, 27. xii. 11.

earthquake that happened in Asia, under Tiberius, and Tacitus observes, that it was accompanied with a pestilence. Tacit. Annal. ii.

v. 10. Shall fall off.] Gr. Shall be scandalized.

v. 12. Iniquity] i. e. Extremely great.] Gr.

Persecution and imposture.
Shall be multiplied.

The love.] i. e. The love of God, or zeal for religion. As persecution shall increase, so will rebellions become more common.

v. 13. Shall be saved.] Either from those dangers, to which men are exposed, upon account of the profession of the gospel, or else from those terrible calamities which the destruction of Jerusalem was attended withal. This also may be understood of eternal salvation.

v. 14. Over all the world.] Not universally, and without any exception; for it is what is not even yet come to pass, but in general, throughout all parts of the world, not only in Judea, but also in other countries, and it is what happened before the destruction of Jerusalem. St. Paul says, that he planted the gospel in all that part of the world, which reaches from Jerusalem to Illyricum. We may judge of the rest of the Apostles in proportion. See Rom. x. 18. Colos. i. 6, 23.

The end shall come.] i. e. The end of this dreadful judgment of God on the Jewish nation.

v. 15. In the holy place.] Before Jerusalem, which is called the holy city, Matt. iv. 5. or even in the land of Judea, which was holy in oposition to those that were inhabited by heathens. [See the Introduction.]

The abomination of desolation.] i. e. The wasting and destroying abomination. These words are borrowed from Daniel ix. 27. and xii.

Daniel (which let him that reads understand) 16 Then let those who are in Judea, fly to the mountains; 17 Let him that shall be on the roof, not come down into the house, to take any thing thence. 18 And let him that shall be in the country, return not to the city to take his clothes. 19 But woe to the woman that shall be with child, or that give suck in those days. 20 Pray God, especially that your flight may not happen in winter, or on the sabbath day. 21 For there shall be then so great a desolation, that the like has not been, since the beginning of the world, neither shall ever be again. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no one could escape. But for the sake of the elect, they shall be

shortened.

ver. 19. Luke xxiii. 29. 4 Esdr. xvi. 34. v. 20. Acts i. 12. Exod. xvi. 29. 1 Macc. ii. 34. v. 21. Dan. xii. 1. Joel ii. 2. v. 22. Esdr. ii. 13, 27. &c. ix. 7, &c.

11. St. Luke gives this clear explanation of them, When you shall see Jerusalem compassed about with armies. The Roman armies were indeed an abomination to the Jews, because they had for their standards, the images of their gods and emperors; or only because they consisted of heathens.

v. 17. The roof.] See Matt. x. 27. and Deut. xxii. 8.

v. 16, 17, 18.] These verses are not to be literally understood. The meaning of them is only this, that there will then be no time to lose, and that people will be obliged to use the utmost speed, upon account of the swift progress of the Roman arms. See Luke xvii. 51.

v. 18. Clothes.] i. e. The garment which the Jews put over the tunick, and which they were wont not to wear in the country.

v. 20. On the sabbath.] The Jews reckoned it unlawful to walk above two thousand paces [or one of our miles] on the sabbath-day. See Exod. xvi. 29. Acts i. 12.

v. 21. There shall be then so great a desolation.] During the siege of Jerusalem, the inhabitants were afflicted at the same time, with famine, pestilence, conflagrations, massacres, robberies, and war.

v. 22. Shortened.] This agrees well with history. Josephus acknowledgeth, that the shortness of the expedition was owing to a very particular dispensation of Providence. See de Bello Jud. 1. vi. c. 16. No one.] Gr. No flesh. See Matt. xvi. 17.

For the sake of the elect.] By the elect here, must be understood the Jews converted to christianity. See Luke xviii. 7. Those whom God was pleased to choose from among that corrupted people.

23 At that time, if any one say to you, Christ is here, or he is there; believe him not. 24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, who shall do such great miracles, and such wonderful things, that they would deceive, if it were possible, the very elect themselves. 25 You see, I have told you this beforehand. 26 If therefore it is said, He is in the desert, go not thither: He is in the most retired part of the house, give no credit to it. 27 For as a flash of lightning, which comes out of the east, is seen in an instant, as far as the west, such shall be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 And where the carcase is, there will the

eagles come.

ver. 23. Mark xiii. 21. Luke xvii. 23. xxi. 8. v. 24. Mark xiii. 22. 2 Pet. iii. 17. Matt. vii. 15. v. 28. Job xxxix. 33. Luke xvii. 37.

v. 23. Christ.] Or, Messiah.

v. 24. False Christs.] Or, False Messiahs.

So great miracles.] The Jewish nation was then very much addicted to sorcery and magic. So that any false teachers that did but accompany their lying impostures with magic, could not but seduce the people, and the more, because there was among them a general expectation of the Messiah. For a further explanation of this verse, see Josephus Antiq. 1. xx. c. 6. de Bello Jud. 1. vii. c. 31. Euseb. Hist. Ecclesiast. 1. iv. c. 6.

v. 26. In the desart.] See Acts xxi. 38. and Joseph. de Bello Jud. 1. vii.

In the most retired part of the house.] i. e. Retired to such or such a place.

v. 27. For as a flash of lightning.] This comparison gives a lively representation of the swiftness and noise that was to attend the dreadful judgment, which Christ was going to inflict on the Jewish nation.

v. 28. The carcase.] This is a proverb, see Job xxxix. 33. Habak. i. 8. The application Jesus Christ makes of it here, is both just and sublime. The dead body is the Jewish state ready to expire; it is Jerusalem, that was going to fall a prey to the Romans, who had eagles for their standards.

29 Now immediately after those days of affliction, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not shine, the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken. 30 Then shall the sign of the Son of Man appear in heaven; then also shall the tribes of the earth Jament, and shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with great power and glory. 31 And he shall send his angels, who, at the loud sound of the trumpet, shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one extremity of heaven to the other. 32 Learn this by a comparison, taken from the fig-tree; when its branches begin to be tender, and shoot forth leaves, ye know that summer is at

Luke xxi. 25.
31. iii. 15.

Ezek. xxxii. 7. Isa. Acts ii. 20. Amos v.

ver. 29. Mark xiii. 24, 26. xiii. 10, 13. xxxiv. 4. Joel ii. 10, 20. viii. 9. Zephan. i. 15. v. 30. Rev. i. 7. 64. Mark xiv. 62. Zech. xii. 10, 12. Dan. vii. 13. xiii. 41. 1 Cor. xv. 52. 1 Thes. iv. 16.

Matt. xvi. 27. xxvi.

v. 31. Matt.

v. 29. Those days of affliction.] After those dreadful preparations, which will cast Judea into the utmost consternation, then will come the last stroke.

The sun shall be darkened.] The prophet Isaiah uses the same expressions, when foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem, it is a prophetic style, which must not be literally understood. Jesus Christ gives in these words, a description of the total overthrow of the Jewish state, that was closely to follow the destruction of Jerusalem. Isa. xiii. 10.

See

The powers of heaven.] i. e. The stars, which are, in scripture styled the host of heaven. The same figure is still continued.

v. 30. Then shall the sign.] Then shall the supreme power and authority of the Messiah, so conspicuously appear, that all the nations of the earth shall acknowledge him in this dreadful judgment.

The earth.] i. e. Judea.

v. 31. His angels.—] i. e. His messengers; namely, the ministers of the gospel, who after the destruction of Jerusalem, and the total extirpation of the Jewish worship, caused the sound of the gospel more clearly to be heard all over the world.

From the four winds.] i. e. From the four quarters of the world. See Isa. xliii. 5, 6.

Of heaven.] i. e. Of the world, which is under heaven. See Deut. iv. 32. and xxviii. 64.

hand. 33 In like manner, when ye shall see all these things happen, know, that the kingdom of God is near, and at your very door. 34 Assuredly, I tell you, that this generation shall not come to an end, till all these things have happened. 35 Heaven and earth shall pass away; but for my words, they are irrevocable.

36 As to that day and hour, no one knows it, no, not even the angels, it is my Father alone that knows it. 37 But the same thing shall happen, at the coming of the Son of Man, as in the days of Noe. 38 For as in the time before the flood, men went on eating and drinking, marrying and given in marriage, till the very day that Noe entered the ark. 39 And as they thought not of the flood, till it came unawares, and carried them all away; so it shall be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Of two persons, who shall be then in a field, one shall be taken and the other left.

xxiii. 36.

Isa. li. 6. Matt. xxiv.

ver. 33. Jam. v. 9. v. 34. Matt. xi. 16. xvi. 28. Mark xiii. 30, 31. Luke xxi. 32, 33. v. 35. Matt. v. 18. Psal. cii. 26. 2 Pet. iii. 7. 10. v. 36. Mark xiii. 32. 42, 44. Acts i. 7. 2 Pet. iii. 10. 1 Thess. v. 2. v. 37. Luke xvii. 26. 1 Pet. iii. 20.

4 Esdr. xvi. 28.

Gen. vi. 3, 45. vii. 4, 5. v. 40. Luke xvii. 35.

v. 33. When ye shall see-] This is a kind of recapitulation: "When you shall see all the things I have now mentioned, come to pass, you may judge, that the destruction of Jerusalem, and the end of the Jewish nation is at hand, and that the Son of Man will soon come to execute that judgment.

The kingdom of God.] We have added these words from Luke xxi. 31.

v. 34. This generation.] i. e. Those that are now living. See Matt. xi. 16. and xxiii. 36. And indeed, a great number of those that were then alive, were witnesses of the destruction of Jerusalem. See Matt. xvi. 28. and John xxi. 22.

v. 35. Are irrevocable.]

Gr. Shall not pass.

v. 36. It is my Father alone.] Gr. But my Father only.] See Mark xiii. 32.

v. 39 Thought not of.] Gr. Knew not. i. e. Those sensual men did not take the least notice of Noah's admonitions.

v. 40. Of two persons.] These words are an allusion to the history of Lot whom the angels took by the hand, with his wife that staid behind, Gen. xix. 16, 26. and Luke xvii. 28, 32.

In a field.] Or, In the country.