Matthew 24:26-28

24:26 So then, if someone ¹  says to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ ²  do not go out, or ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe him. 24:27 For just like the lightning ³  comes from the east and flashes to the west, so the coming of the Son of Man will be. 24:28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures ⁴  will gather. ⁵ 

¹ tn Grk “they say.” The third person plural is used here as an indefinite and translated “someone” (ExSyn 402).

² tn Or “in the desert.”

³ sn The Son of Man’s coming in power will be sudden and obvious like lightning. No one will need to point it out.

⁵ tn The same Greek term can refer to “eagles” or “vultures” (L&N 4.42; BDAG 22 s.v. ἀετός), but in this context it must mean vultures because the gruesome image is one of dead bodies being consumed by scavengers.

⁶ tn Grk “will be gathered.” The passive construction has been translated as an active one in English.