² For you yourselves know perfectly that ^(A)the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. ³ For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then ^(B)sudden destruction comes upon them, ^(C)as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. ^4 (D)But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. ⁵ You are all ^(E)sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. ^6 (F)Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but ^(G)let us watch and be ^[a]sober. ⁷ For ^(H)those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk ^(I)are drunk at night.

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.

²⁷ They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the ^(A)day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and ^(B)destroyed them all. ^28 (C)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 ^(D)the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.

^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,

¹⁶ So they went out at noon. Meanwhile Ben-Hadad and the thirty-two kings helping him were ^(A)getting drunk at the command post. ¹⁷ The young leaders of the provinces went out first. And Ben-Hadad sent out a patrol, and they told him, saying, “Men are coming out of Samaria!” ¹⁸ So he said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive; and if they have come out for war, take them alive.”

¹⁹ Then these young leaders of the provinces went out of the city with the army which followed them. ²⁰ And each one killed his man; so the Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them; and Ben-Hadad the king of Syria escaped on a horse with the cavalry. ²¹ Then the king of Israel went out and attacked the horses and chariots, and killed the Syrians with a great slaughter.

²² And the prophet came to the king of Israel and said to him, “Go, strengthen yourself; take note, and see what you should do, ^(B)for ^[a]in the spring of the year the king of Syria will come up against you.”

^9 (A)Now his servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him as he was in Tirzah drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, ^(B)steward^[a] of his house in Tirzah.

²⁸ Now Absalom had commanded his servants, saying, “Watch now, when Amnon’s ^(A)heart is merry with wine, and when I say to you, ‘Strike Amnon!’ then kill him. Do not be afraid. Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and ^[a]valiant.”