¹ Certainly you must have heard! ²  Long ago I worked it out, In ancient times I planned ³  it; and now I am bringing it to pass. The plan is this: Fortified cities will crash into heaps of ruins. ⁴ 

So I perceived there is nothing better than for people ¹  to enjoy their work, ²  because that is their ³  reward; for who can show them what the future holds? ⁴ 

Predict how future events will turn out, ¹  so we might know you are gods. Yes, do something good or bad, so we might be frightened and in awe. ² 

The Lord says, “Do not start following pagan religious practices. ¹  Do not be in awe of signs that occur ²  in the sky even though the nations hold them in awe.

Then he said, “I am going to inform you about what will happen in the latter time of wrath, for the vision ¹  pertains to the appointed time of the end.

One said to the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the river, “When will the end of these wondrous events occur?”

The best of them is like a thorn; the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes. ¹  The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen – your appointed time of punishment – is on the way, ²  and then you will experience confusion. ³ 

Moreover, on that day living waters will flow out from Jerusalem, ¹  half of them to the eastern sea ²  and half of them to the western sea; ³  it will happen both in summer and in winter.

For nation will rise up in arms ¹  against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines. ²  These are but the beginning of birth pains.

And now, ¹  because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, ²  you will be silent, unable to speak, ³  until the day these things take place.”

But I have told you these things ¹  so that when their time ²  comes, you will remember that I told you about them. ³  “I did not tell you these things from the beginning because I was with you. ⁴ 

One of them, named Agabus, got up ¹  and predicted ²  by the Spirit that a severe ³  famine ⁴  was about to come over the whole inhabited world. ⁵  (This ⁶  took place during the reign of Claudius.) ⁷ 

No one thinks to himself, nor do they comprehend or understand and say to themselves: ‘I burned half of it in the fire – yes, I baked bread over the coals; I roasted meat and ate it. With the rest of it should I make a disgusting idol? Should I bow down to dry wood?’ ¹ 

In those days, your population will greatly increase ¹  in the land. At that time,” says the Lord, “people will no longer talk about having the ark ²  that contains the Lord’s covenant with us. ³  They will not call it to mind, remember it, or miss it. No, that will not be done any more! ⁴ 

You saw that a stone was cut from a mountain, but not by human hands; it smashed the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold into pieces. The great God has made known to the king what will occur in the future. ¹  The dream is certain, and its interpretation is reliable.”

So he approached the place where I was standing. As he came, I felt terrified and fell flat on the ground. ¹  Then he said to me, “Understand, son of man, ²  that the vision pertains to the time of the end.”

“Then the king ¹  will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every deity and he will utter presumptuous things against the God of gods. He will succeed until the time of ²  wrath is completed, for what has been decreed must occur. ³