³ While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then ^(A)sudden destruction will come upon them ^(B)as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

Watch Yourselves

³⁴ “But watch yourselves ^(A)lest ^(B)your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and ^(C)cares of this life, and ^(D)that day come upon you suddenly ^(E)like a trap. ³⁵ For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth.

^37 (A)For as were the days of Noah, ^(B)so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ^38 (C)For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, ^(D)marrying and giving in marriage, until ^(E)the day when Noah entered the ark, ³⁹ and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, ^(F)so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

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

^3 (A)how shall we escape if we ^(B)neglect such a great salvation? It was ^(C)declared at first by the Lord, and it was ^(D)attested to us ^(E)by those who heard,

³ Then they brought in ^(A)the golden vessels 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 wine and ^(B)praised the ^(C)gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

^5 (D)Immediately ^(E)the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw ^(F)the hand as it wrote. ^6 (G)Then the king's color changed, ^(H)and his thoughts alarmed him; ^(I)his limbs gave way, and ^(J)his knees knocked together.

⁹ They will suffer the punishment of ^(A)eternal destruction, ^(B)away from^[a] the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,