¹⁵ And he said to the people, “Prepare for the third day; do not go near a woman.”

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

¹¹ and prepare for the third day, because on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.^(A)

⁴ The priest answered David, “I have no ordinary bread at hand, only holy bread—provided that the young men have kept themselves from women.”^{(A) 5} David answered the priest, “Indeed, 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 a common journey; how much more today will their vessels be holy?”^(B)

¹¹ Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, ¹² waiting for and hastening^[a] the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and destroyed and the elements will melt with fire?

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

¹⁰ Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.^(A)

¹¹ “I baptize you with^[a] water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I, and I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with^[b] the Holy Spirit and fire.^{(B) 12} His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”^(C)

² But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

For he is like a refiner’s fire and like washers’ soap;^(A)

³ and to ask the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and the prophets, “Should I mourn and practice abstinence in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”^(A)

³ the third chariot white horses, and the fourth chariot dappled gray^[a] horses.^(A)