Chapter 153

¹ This one will slay the two martyrs and forerunners of Christ who proclaim his glorious coming from the heavens, as he says through the prophet: “And I will grant to my two martyrs, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”

² Just as he also said to Daniel: “And he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week, and it shall be that in the midst of the week my sacrifice and libation shall be taken away”—so that the one week may be shown to be divided into two, the two martyrs preaching for three and a half years, and the Antichrist for the remainder of the week making war on the saints and laying waste the whole world, that what was said may be fulfilled: “And they shall give the abomination of desolation a thousand two hundred and ninety days; blessed is he who endures unto Christ and attains to a thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.”

³ For then there shall be great tribulation, such as has not been from the foundation of the world, with men sent here and there throughout every city and country to do away with the faithful, and the Jews rejoicing at their destruction, and the nations gloating, and the unbelievers joining with them, while the saints flee from west to east, and others are pursued from the east to the south, and others hide themselves in the mountains and in the caves, the abomination making war on them everywhere and by sea and by land destroying them by his decree and in every way crushing them out of the world, since they can neither sell anything of their own nor buy from others, unless one carries about the name of the beast on his hand, or bears its mark upon the forehead.

⁴ For all the faithful then will be driven out from every place and dragged down from their houses and expelled from the cities and hauled through the public squares and punished with every punishment and cast out of the whole world.