For those will be days of tribulation unmatched from the beginning of God’s creation until now, and never to be seen again.
Parallel translations
- WEB For in those days there will be oppression, such as there has not been the like from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will be.
- KJV For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.
- NKJV For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall be.
- NASB For those days will be such a time of tribulation as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will again.
- NLT For there will be greater anguish in those days than at any time since God created the world. And it will never be so great again.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Those days will bring unequaled tribulation, worse than any before or after. The coming distress will be uniquely severe.
Overview
Jesus describes suffering of extraordinary intensity, language drawn from Daniel 12:1. The fall of Jerusalem brought horrific anguish, and many see here also a pattern of tribulation reaching toward the end of the age. The solemn weight of his words prepares his people to endure, knowing such days are within God's permission and will not last forever.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Dan 12:1“At that time Michael, the great prince who stands watch over your people, will rise up. There will be a time of distress, the likes of which will not have occurred from the beginning of nations until that time. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered.
- Joel 2:2a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like the dawn overspreading the mountains a great and strong army appears, such as never was of old, nor will ever be in ages to come.
- Matt 24:21For at that time there will be great tribulation, unmatched from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be seen again.
- Dan 9:26Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing. Then the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations have been decreed.
- Mark 10:6However, from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’
- Luke 21:22–24For these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.
- Dan 9:12You have carried out the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us a great disaster. For under all of heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.
- Lam 1:12Is this nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see! Is there any sorrow like mine, which was inflicted on me, which the LORD made me suffer on the day of His fierce anger?
- Isa 65:12–15I will destine you for the sword, and you will all kneel down to be slaughtered, because I called and you did not answer, I spoke and you did not listen; you did evil in My sight and chose that in which I did not delight.”
- Deut 4:32Indeed, ask now from one end of the heavens to the other about the days that long preceded you, from the day that God created man on earth: Has anything as great as this ever happened or been reported?
- Deut 28:59He will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary disasters, severe and lasting plagues, and terrible and chronic sicknesses.
- Lam 2:13What can I say for you? To what can I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may console you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion? For your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can ever heal you?
- Deut 29:22–28Then the generation to come—your sons who follow you and the foreigner who comes from a distant land—will see the plagues of the land and the sicknesses the LORD has inflicted on it.
- Lam 4:6The punishment of the daughter of my people is greater than that of Sodom, which was overthrown in an instant without a hand turned to help her.
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Christ at the center
Mark drives urgently to the cross, showing Jesus the Son of God as the suffering Servant who 'came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'
How Mark 13:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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