Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Luke · About this commentary
Jerusalem Surrounded by Armies
Luke 21:20-24
20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand. · WEB
This account names the sign plainly — armies around the city — and tells them to get out.
"But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand" Luke 21:20.
Where the other accounts have the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place Mark 13:14 Matthew 24:15, this one has an army around the city. It is the plainest statement of the sign in any of the three, and it is the kind of thing a Gentile reader could act on.
The instruction that follows is unambiguous and it is the same in all three. "Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the middle of her depart. Let those who are in the country not enter therein" Luke 21:21.
Three directions, and the middle one is the striking one: those in the middle of her are to leave. Not defend the holy city, not shelter behind its walls — a besieged capital is normally where the countryside runs to, and they are told to run the other way.
"For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled" Luke 21:22. What is coming is described as the fulfillment of what the prophets had long said would follow persistent refusal, and the covenant curses had described a siege in exactly these terms Deuteronomy 28:49–52.
"Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days!" Luke 21:23. The one note of pity in the paragraph, and it is for the people who cannot run.
"They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled" Luke 21:24.
The last clause is this Gospel's alone, and it does something the rest of the paragraph does not: it sets a limit. Until is a boundary word. However long the trampling runs, it is described as having a term, and the term is tied to a period belonging to the nations rather than to the city.
The account does not date it and does not describe what follows, and neither should be supplied. What the verse establishes is that the desolation is not the end of the story — which is why the next paragraph moves straight from a trampled city to a coming Son of Man.
held with reason What this mark means