29. Ten will survive out of an entire city; out of a field only two who have hidden themselves in dense groves and fissures in the rocks will be left.
30. As three or four olives are left on individual trees in an olive orchard,
31. or as in a vineyard that has been harvested a few clusters are left by those who diligently search the vineyard,
32. so in those days three or four will be left by those who search house to house with the sword.
33. The earth will be left desolate, and its fields will be taken over by thornbushes, and its roads and all its paths will sprout thorns, because sheep won’t pass on them.
34. Virgins will mourn, having no bridegrooms; women will mourn, having no husbands; their daughters will mourn, having no support.
35. Their grooms will be killed in war, and their husbands will perish from famine.
36. Listen to these things and understand them, you servants of the Lord.
37. Here is the Lord’s word. Accept it. Don’t disbelieve the things that the Lord speaks about.
38. Look, the disasters are approaching and won’t be delayed.
39. A woman in the ninth month of pregnancy, when the hour for giving birth arrives, experiences great pains around her womb for two or three hours beforehand, but when the infant is ready to come forth from the womb she doesn’t delay for a moment.
40. In the same way, these disasters won’t delay to come forth on the earth, but the world will groan and pangs will envelop it.
41. Hear the word, my people. Prepare yourselves for battle, and in the midst of disasters be like strangers on earth.
42. Let the person who sells be like a person who is about to run away, and let the person who buys be like a person who is about to lose.
43. Let one who does business be as one who makes no profit; one who builds as one who won’t get to live in the building;