Another traditional conviction of apocalyptic authors is that international wars and natural disasters (famines and earthquakes) will all take place immediately prior to the end of history. But Matthew corrects this belief by indicating that these are all part of the natural course of history and are in no way to be looked upon as indicators of the end of time (see verses 6b, 8).

Nation will rise against nation is generally assumed to be a reference to international wars. However, kingdom against kingdom may refer to civil wars, or it may be taken as parallel to nation will rise against nation. Matthew probably had no firm distinction in mind; the significance of the two clauses may well be “There will be wars and civil strife everywhere.”

The expression rise against can be translated in a rather general sense of fighting or warfare, as in Good News Translation, but can also be rendered with the somewhat more specific notion of “attack.” One possible translation is “For nations will attack each other and kingdoms will go to war.”

Famines are, alas, too well known. If, however, there is no specific word for them, translators can use an expression such as “in many places there will be no food for people to eat” or “people in some places will be starving.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .