Chapter 154

¹ We must, then, look closely at the tribulation and misery of the saints that will then be—for we must conceive of what is to come from the things that already happen in part—when such a storm and turmoil comes upon the whole world, and all the faithful everywhere are being done away with and slaughtered throughout every city and country, and the blood of the righteous is being poured out, and living men are being burned, and others thrown to wild beasts, and infants murdered in the streets, and all flung out unburied and devoured by dogs, and virgins and women openly defiled and shamefully mocked, and seizures taking place, and the resting-places of the saints dug up, and relics unearthed and scattered over the plain, and blasphemies being uttered.

² There will be turmoil in the cities then, as the saints are driven from there; there will be turmoil on the roads and in the deserts, as all wish to hide there; there will be turmoil on the sea, as all try to flee by water; there will be turmoil among the islands, as all are sought out there.

³ And the land then will be barren for the saints, and every city uninhabited, and the sea unsailable, and the whole world a desert, with some perishing from famine, and others fainting away from thirst, and others dying from fear and from the great tribulation.

⁴ Where then will a man hide himself? To whom will he entrust his own children? Where will he carry off his possessions and keep them safe, when he cannot even save his own life?

⁵ Then there will be many wailings of infants, laments of fathers and mothers, shrieks of women and virgins, beatings of breast among brothers and kinsfolk.

⁶ Who will mourn for whom then? Not brother for brother, for he himself awaits death; not mother for daughter, for she too dreads death; not father for son, fearing lest he too be done away with.