The Day and Hour Unknown

³² “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.^{(A) 33} Be on guard! Be alert^[a]!^(B) You do not know when that time will come. ³⁴ It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants^(C) in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

³⁵ “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. ³⁶ If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. ³⁷ What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”^(D)

The Day and Hour Unknown^(A)(B)

³⁶ “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,^[a] but only the Father.^{(C) 37} As it was in the days of Noah,^(D) so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸ For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage,^(E) up to the day Noah entered the ark; ³⁹ and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.^{(F) 40} Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.^{(G) 41} Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.^(H)

⁴² “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.^{(I) 43} But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming,^(J) he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴ So you also must be ready,^(K) because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

⁴⁵ “Who then is the faithful and wise servant,^(L) whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? ⁴⁶ It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.^{(M) 47} Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.^{(N) 48} But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ ⁴⁹ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards.^{(O) 50} The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. ⁵¹ He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.^(P)

³⁴ “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life,^(A) and that day will close on you suddenly^(B) like a trap. ³⁵ For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. ³⁶ Be always on the watch, and pray^(C) that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

³⁷ Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple,^(D) and each evening he went out^(E) to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives,^{(F) 38} and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.^(G)