¹⁵ And he said to the people, “Be ready for the ^(A)third day; ^(B)do not go near a woman.”

^5 (A)Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, ^(B)so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

¹¹ and be ready for the third day. For on the third day ^(A)the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

⁴ And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is ^(A)holy bread—^(B)if the young men have kept themselves from women.” ⁵ And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?”

¹¹ Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, ^(A)what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, ^12 (B)waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and ^(C)the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!

⁴⁴ Therefore you also must be ^(A)ready, for ^(B)the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

¹⁰ Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. ^(A)Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

^11 (B)“I baptize you with water ^(C)for repentance, but ^(D)he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you ^(E)with the Holy Spirit and ^(F)fire. ¹² His ^(G)winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and ^(H)gather his wheat into the barn, ^(I)but the chaff he will burn with ^(J)unquenchable fire.”

² But ^(A)who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For ^(B)he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap.

^3 (A)saying to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and ^(B)the prophets, “Should I weep and ^(C)abstain in ^(D)the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”