What Does Mark 13:14 Mean?
But when you see the stench of emptying, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not to stand, let the reader perceive, then let those in Judea flee to the mountains.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judæa flee to the mountains:THE KEY
Desolation is already becoming visible when the abhorrent thing stands where it should not.
THE MEANING
This warning speaks when a detestable presence takes a place it has no right to occupy: its visibility makes the danger plain before devastation is complete. The people in Judea are told to flee toward the mountains as soon as they recognize the sign.
THE ROOT
ἐρημώσεως
erēmōseōs
GROWS FROM
ἐρημ-
erēm-
A Greek word-family stem for what is deserted or made empty; Greek forms roots differently from Hebrew’s three-consonant shoresh.
“emptying” in this verse is erēmōseōs. The word connects desolation with being left deserted, not only with a disaster’s name. The phrase makes the abhorrent presence and the emptied place part of one unfolding picture.
ALSO GROWS
erēmos: deserted; wilderness
ἔρημος
The same word family can name a deserted place, making desolation feel like an emptied landscape.
erēmoō: to lay waste; make desolate
ἐρημόω
This verb names the act of rendering a place deserted, linking the visible sign with the devastation it heralds.
βδέλυγμα
bdelygma
GROWS FROM
βδελυ-
bdely-
The Greek word family carries the sense of abhorrence or revulsion.
“stench” in this verse is bdelygma. The word names something detestable, with a force beyond a generic obstruction. Paired with desolation, it describes a presence whose abhorrence is bound to devastation.
ALSO GROWS
bdelyssomai: to abhor; detest
βδελύσσομαι
The related verb shows the family’s core sense of revulsion.
bdelyktos: detestable; abominable
βδελυκτός
This related adjective describes something as worthy of abhorrence, echoing the force of the noun.
THE PATTERN
A place’s visible condition can reveal that devastation is no longer distant.
His arms stand on his side, and they pierce the set-apart place of strength. They take away the continual drawing near, and they set the loathsome thing that empties it.Your set-apart cities have become wilderness, Zion has become wilderness, and Jerusalem has become a stunned waste.And when you see Jerusalem encircled by armies, then know that its emptying has drawn near.THE THREAD
His arms stand on his side, and they pierce the set-apart place of strength. They take away the continual drawing near, and they set the loathsome thing that empties it.Daniel’s Hebrew phrase הַשִּׁקּוּץ מְשֹׁמֵם (ha-shiqquts meshomem, “the detestable thing that makes desolate”) binds the abhorrent presence to the devastation it brings. Mark names Daniel and makes the placement decisive: the thing is seen standing where it should not.
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