Olabide, however, then made the decision to embark on a translation of the Bible. The New Testament took him ten years; it was published in 1931 in Bilbao. After the expulsion of the Jesuits in the course of the Spanish Civil War, he took shelter at the Franciscan Sanctuary of Arantzazu in Oñati, where he devoted himself to the translation of the Old Testament. By chance, he was living in the city of Guernica on 26 April 1937 when the German Luftwaffe conducted its attack on the city. He was able to save his manuscripts from his residence before it was destroyed by fire and escaped to the nearby town of Kanala, where he was given refuge in the rectory of the town. He then left Spain and settled in Toulouse, France, where he died as the result of an accident on the streets of the city.