I was trying to understand what the vision meant, when suddenly someone was standing in front of me.

I heard a voice call out over the Ulai River, "Gabriel, explain to him the meaning of what he saw."

Your instructions give me pleasure; they are my advisers.

I understand more than all my teachers, because I meditate on your instructions.

I have greater wisdom than those who are old, because I obey your commands.

"You will see 'The Awful Horror' of which the prophet Daniel spoke. It will be standing in the holy place." (Note to the reader: understand what this means!)

"You will see 'The Awful Horror' standing in the place where he should not be." (Note to the reader: understand what this means!) "Then those who are in Judea must run away to the hills.

The official asked Philip, "Tell me, of whom is the prophet saying this? Of himself or of someone else?"

Until I come, give your time and effort to the public reading of the Scriptures and to preaching and teaching.

and you remember that ever since you were a child, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed.

It was concerning this salvation that the prophets made careful search and investigation, and they prophesied about this gift which God would give you.

God revealed to these prophets that their work was not for their own benefit, but for yours, as they spoke about those things which you have now heard from the messengers who announced the Good News by the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. These are things which even the angels would like to understand.

So we are even more confident of the message proclaimed by the prophets. You will do well to pay attention to it, because it is like a lamp shining in a dark place until the Day dawns and the light of the morning star shines in your hearts.

For no prophetic message ever came just from the human will, but people were under the control of the Holy Spirit as they spoke the message that came from God.

Happy is the one who reads this book, and happy are those who listen to the words of this prophetic message and obey what is written in this book! For the time is near when all these things will happen.

And so what the LORD had foretold through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: "The land will lie desolate for seventy years, to make up for the Sabbath rest that has not been observed."

This whole land will be left in ruins and will be a shocking sight, and the neighboring nations will serve the king of Babylonia for seventy years.

After that I will punish Babylonia and its king for their sin. I will destroy that country and leave it in ruins forever.

All nations will serve him, and they will serve his son and his grandson until the time comes for his own nation to fall. Then his nation will serve powerful nations and great kings.

"The LORD says, 'When Babylonia's seventy years are over, I will show my concern for you and keep my promise to bring you back home.

He said, "Tell the people of the land and the priests that when they fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during these seventy years, it was not in honor of me.

Walk over these total ruins; our enemies have destroyed everything in the Temple.

They looked like woodsmen cutting down trees with their axes.

They wrecked your Temple and set it on fire; they desecrated the place where you are worshiped.

O God, the heathen have invaded your land. They have desecrated your holy Temple and left Jerusalem in ruins.

They left the bodies of your people for the vultures, the bodies of your servants for wild animals to eat.

I asked, "How long will it be like this, Lord?" He answered, "Until the cities are ruined and empty---until the houses are uninhabited---until the land itself is a desolate wasteland.

I will send the people far away and make the whole land desolate.

In the city everything is in chaos, and people lock themselves in their houses for safety.

The city is in ruins, and its gates have been broken down.

Your sacred cities are like a desert; Jerusalem is a deserted ruin,

The land will become a desert. In the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the happy sounds of wedding feasts.

Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah, together with its kings and leaders, were made to drink from it, so that they would become a desert, a terrible and shocking sight, and so that people would use their name as a curse---as they still do.

If you continue to disobey, then I will do to this Temple what I did to Shiloh, and all the nations of the world will use the name of this city as a curse."

"When Hezekiah was king of Judah, the prophet Micah of Moresheth told all the people that the LORD Almighty had said, 'Zion will be plowed like a field; Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins, and the Temple hill will become a forest.'

How lonely lies Jerusalem, once so full of people! Once honored by the world, she is now like a widow; The noblest of cities has fallen into slavery.

And so, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins, and the Temple hill will become a forest.