8 Nation will go to war with nation, and kingdom with kingdom: there will be earth-shocks in different places; there will be times when there is no food; these things are the first of the troubles.
And another horse came out, a red horse; and it was given to him who was seated on it to take peace from the earth, so that people might put one another to death: and there was given to him a great sword.
And one of them, named Agabus, said publicly through the Spirit that there would be serious need of food all over the earth: which came about in the time of Claudius.
And I will send the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they will be fighting every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; town against town, and kingdom against kingdom.
And they were broken by divisions, nation against nation and town against town, because God sent all sorts of trouble on them.
Overturning the power of kingdoms; and I will send destruction on the strength of the kingdoms of the nations; by me war-carriages will be overturned with those who are in them; and the horses and the horsemen will come down, everyone by the sword of his brother.
When they say, There is peace and no danger, then sudden destruction will come on them, as birth-pains on a woman with child; and they will not be able to get away from it.
Shaking came on them and pain, as on a woman in childbirth.
Now why are you crying so loudly? is there no king in you? has destruction come on your wise helper? so that pains have taken you like the pains of a woman in childbirth: Be in pain, make sounds of grief, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in childbirth: for now you will go out of the town, living in the open country, and will come even to Babylon; there you will have salvation; there the Lord will make you free from the hands of your haters.
Damascus has become feeble, she is turned to flight, fear has taken her in its grip: pain and sorrows have come on her, as on a woman in birth-pains.
This is what the Lord of armies has said: See, evil is going out from nation to nation, and a great storm will come up from the inmost parts of the earth.
What will you say when he puts over you those whom you yourself have made your friends? will not pains take you like a woman in childbirth?
A voice has come to my ears like the voice of a woman in birth-pains, the pain of one giving birth to her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, fighting for breath, stretching out her hands, saying, Now sorrow is mine! for my strength is gone from me before the takers of life.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Mark 13
Commentary on Mark 13 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 13
We have here the substance of that prophetical sermon which our Lord Jesus preached, pointing at the destruction of Jerusalem, and the consummation of all things; it was one of the last of his sermons, and not ad populum-to the people, but ad clerum-to the clergy; it was private, preached only to four of his disciples, with whom his secret was. Here is,
Mar 13:1-4
We may here see,
Mar 13:5-13
Our Lord Jesus, in reply to their question, sets himself, not so much to satisfy their curiosity as to direct their consciences; leaves them still in the dark concerning the times and seasons, which the father has kept in his own power, and which it was not for them to know; but gives them the cautions which were needful, with reference to the events that should now shortly come to pass.
Mar 13:14-23
The Jews, in rebelling against the Romans, and in persecuting the Christians, were hastening to their own ruin apace, both efficiently and meritoriously, were setting both God and man against them; see 1 Th. 2:15. Now here we have a prediction of that ruin which came upon them within less than forty years after this: we had it before, Mt. 24:15, etc. Observe,
Mar 13:24-27
These verses seem to point at Christ's second coming, to judge the world; the disciples, in their question, had confounded the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world (Mt. 24:3), which was built upon a mistake, as if the temple must needs stand as long as the world stands; this mistake Christ rectifies, and shows that the end of the world in those days, those other days you enquire about, the day of Christ's coming, and the day of judgment, shall be after that tribulation, and not coincident with it. Let those who live to see the Jewish nation destroyed, take heed of thinking that, because the Son of man doth not visibly come in the clouds then, he will never so come; no, he will come after that. And here he foretels,
Mar 13:28-37
We have here the application of this prophetical sermon; now learn to look forward in a right manner.