¹⁰ Because, in truth, because they have misled my people, saying, “Peace,” when there is no peace, and because, when the people build a flimsy wall, these prophets^[a] smear whitewash on it.^{(A) 11} Say to those who smear whitewash on it that it shall fall. There will be a deluge of rain,^[b] great hailstones will fall, and a stormy wind will break out.^{(B) 12} When the wall falls, will it not be said to you, “Where is the whitewash you smeared on it?” ¹³ Therefore thus says the Lord God: In my wrath I will make a stormy wind break out, and in my anger there shall be a deluge of rain and hailstones in wrath to destroy it. ¹⁴ I will break down the wall that you have smeared with whitewash and bring it to the ground, so that its foundation will be laid bare; when the city falls, you shall perish within it, and you shall know that I am the Lord.^{(C) 15} Thus I will spend my wrath upon the wall and upon those who have smeared it with whitewash, and I will say to you, “The wall is no more, nor those who smeared it—

³⁰ The rest fled into the city of Aphek, and the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand men who were left.

Ben-hadad also fled and entered the city to hide.^(A)

5 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you.^{(A) 2} For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.^{(B) 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!^(C)

⁴⁹ But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it quickly collapsed, and great was the ruin of that house.”

²⁷ The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”