Be in Readiness

³⁵ “^[a]Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. ³⁶ Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. ³⁷ Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them. ³⁸ Whether he comes in the ^[b]second watch, or even in the ^[c]third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

³⁹ “But ^[d]be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be ^[e]broken into. ⁴⁰ You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not ^[f]expect.”

⁴¹ Peter said, “Lord, are You addressing this parable to us, or to everyone else as well?” ⁴² And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his ^[g]servants, to give them their rations at the proper time? ⁴³ Blessed is that slave whom his ^[h]master finds so doing when he comes. ⁴⁴ Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. ⁴⁵ But if that slave says in his heart, ‘My master ^[i]will be a long time in coming,’ and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk; ⁴⁶ the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers. ⁴⁷ And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, ⁴⁸ but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of ^[j]a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.

Christ Divides Men

⁴⁹ “I ^[k]have come to cast fire upon the earth; and ^[l]how I wish it were already kindled! ⁵⁰ But I have a baptism to ^[m]undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished! ⁵¹ Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; ⁵² for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. ⁵³ They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

⁵⁴ And He was also saying to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it turns out. ⁵⁵ And when you see a south wind blowing, you say, ‘It will be a hot day,’ and it turns out that way. ⁵⁶ You hypocrites! You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but ^[n]why do you not analyze this present time?

⁵⁷ “And why do you not even on your own initiative judge what is right? ⁵⁸ For while you are going with your opponent to appear before the magistrate, on your way there make an effort to ^[o]settle with him, so that he may not drag you before the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. ⁵⁹ I say to you, you will not get out of there until you have paid the very last ^[p]cent.”

Pharaoh Warned of Assyria’s Fate

31 In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first of the month, the word of the Lord came to me saying, ² “Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his hordes,

¹⁰ ‘Therefore thus says the Lord ^[l]God, “Because ^[m]it is high in stature and has set its top among the ^[n]clouds, and its heart is haughty in its loftiness, ¹¹ therefore I will give it into the hand of a ^[o]despot of the nations; he will thoroughly deal with it. According to its wickedness I have driven it away. ¹² Alien tyrants of the nations have cut it down and left it; on the mountains and in all the valleys its branches have fallen and its boughs have been broken in all the ravines of the land. And all the peoples of the earth have gone down from its shade and left it. ¹³ On its ruin all the birds of the heavens will dwell, and all the beasts of the field will be on its fallen branches ¹⁴ so that all the trees by the waters may not be exalted in their stature, nor set their top among the ^[p]clouds, nor their ^[q]well-watered mighty ones stand erect in their height. For they have all been given over to death, to the earth beneath, among the sons of men, with those who go down to the pit.”

¹⁵ ‘Thus says the Lord God, “On the day when it went down to Sheol I caused lamentations; I closed the ^[r]deep over it and held back its rivers. And its many waters were stopped up, and I made Lebanon ^[s]mourn for it, and all the trees of the field wilted away on account of it. ¹⁶ I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall when I made it go down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit; and all the ^[t]well-watered trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, were comforted in the earth beneath. ¹⁷ They also went down with it to Sheol to those who were slain by the sword; and those who were its ^[u]strength lived under its shade among the nations.

¹⁸ “To which among the trees of Eden are you thus ^[v]equal in glory and greatness? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the earth beneath; you will lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who were slain by the sword. So is Pharaoh and all his hordes!”’ declares the Lord God.”