14 “But whenever you all see the most horrible thing that drives people from God, standing where it shouldn’t be[ref] (and you readers should understand that), then anyone in Yehudah (Judea) should flee into the hills, 15 and anyone upstairs looking outside shouldn’t come down into the bedrooms to get anything,[ref] 16 and anyone working outside shouldn’t go back inside to get a change of clothes. 17 It will be extremely difficult for pregnant women and for mothers who are breast-feeding their children in those days. 18 Just pray that it won’t happen in the winter, 19 because those days will be terrible like nothing that’s ever happened before, all the way back to when God created the world, right until the present time, and won’t ever happen again.[ref] 20 If Yahweh hadn’t shortened that time, no humans would even survive, but he shortened that time so that the chosen ones could be saved.

21 ⇔So don’t believe it if you all hear someone say, ‘Look, the messiah has arrived here.’ or ‘There’s the one that God has sent.’ 22 Plenty of fake messiahs and deceiving prophets will certainly come and even do things that humans can’t normally do, so much so that even the chosen ones would defect if that were possible. 23 So watch out, but I’ve warned you in advance about all of that.