³ When they say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape!^(A)

Exhortation to Watch

³⁴ “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life and that day does not catch you unexpectedly,^{(A) 35} like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth.

³⁷ For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.^{(A) 38} For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, ³⁹ and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so, too, will be the coming of the Son of Man.

³ how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was declared at first through the Lord, and it was confirmed for us by those who heard him,^(A)

²⁶ Just as it was in the days of Noah, so, too, it will be in the days of the Son of Man.^{(A) 27} They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them. ²⁸ Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building,^{(B) 29} but on the day that Lot left Sodom it rained fire and sulfur from heaven and destroyed all of them; ³⁰ it will be like that on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.

³ So they brought in the vessels of gold that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. ⁴ They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.^(A)

The Writing on the Wall

⁵ Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and began writing on the plaster of the wall of the royal palace, next to the lampstand. The king was watching the hand as it wrote.^{(B) 6} Then the king’s face turned pale, and his thoughts terrified him. His limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together.^(C)

⁴ For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and committed them to chains^[a] of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment;^(A)