³ For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then ^(A)sudden destruction comes upon them, ^(B)as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.

The Importance of Watching^(A)

³⁴ “But ^(B)take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with ^[a]carousing, drunkenness, and ^(C)cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. ³⁵ For ^(D)it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.

³⁷ But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. ^38 (A)For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, ³⁹ and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

^26 (A)And as it ^(B)was in the ^(C)days of ^(D)Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: ²⁷ They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the ^(E)day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and ^(F)destroyed them all. ^28 (G)Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; ²⁹ but on ^(H)the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. ³⁰ Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man ^(I)is revealed.

^7 (A)In the measure that she glorified herself and lived ^[a]luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as ^(B)queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’ ⁸ Therefore her plagues will come ^(C)in one day—death and mourning and famine. And ^(D)she will be utterly burned with fire, ^(E)for strong is the Lord God who ^[b]judges her.

^3 (A)how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, ^(B)which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was ^(C)confirmed to us by those who heard Him,

^9 (A)These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and ^(B)from the glory of His power,

Happy Is He Who Keeps the Law

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

^5 (C)In the same hour the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. ⁶ Then the king’s countenance changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his ^(D)knees knocked against each other.