Be on your guard and stay alert! For you do not know when the appointed time will come.
Parallel translations
- WEB Watch, keep alert, and pray; for you don’t know when the time is.
- KJV Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.
- NKJV Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is.
- NASB “Watch out, stay alert; for you do not know when the appointed time is.
- NLT And since you don’t know when that time will come, be on guard! Stay alert!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Because the time is unknown, Jesus commands them to watch, stay alert, and pray. Readiness, not calculation, is the proper response.
Overview
Ignorance of the timing is not cause for anxiety but for vigilance. Jesus calls for spiritual wakefulness and prayer as the way to be prepared for his coming. This refrain, repeated through the chapter's close, sums up the whole discourse: live every day ready to meet the Lord, trusting the Father's timing and depending on him in prayer.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Luke 12:40You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.”
- Rom 13:11–12And do this, understanding the occasion. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
- Eph 6:18Pray in the Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition. To this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints.
- Rev 16:15“Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who remains awake and clothed, so that he will not go naked and let his shame be exposed.”
- Matt 25:13Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
- 1 Pet 5:8Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
- 1 Pet 4:7The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear-minded and sober, so that you can pray.
- Luke 21:34–36But watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life—and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare.
- Matt 24:42–44Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day on which your Lord will come.
- Rev 3:2Wake up and strengthen what remains, which was about to die; for I have found your deeds incomplete in the sight of My God.
- 1 Cor 16:13Be on the alert. Stand firm in the faith. Be men of courage. Be strong.
- Matt 26:40–41Then Jesus returned to the disciples and found them sleeping. “Were you not able to keep watch with Me for one hour?” He asked Peter.
- Mark 13:23So be on your guard; I have told you everything in advance.
- Mark 14:37–38Then Jesus returned and found them sleeping. “Simon, are you asleep?” He asked. “Were you not able to keep watch for one hour?
- Mark 13:35–37Therefore keep watch, because you do not know when the master of the house will return—whether in the evening, at midnight, when the rooster crows, or in the morning.
- 1 Th 5:5–8For you are all sons of the light and sons of the day; we do not belong to the night or to the darkness.
- Heb 12:15See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and that no root of bitterness springs up to cause trouble and defile many.
- Rom 13:14Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.
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Christ at the center
Mark drives urgently to the cross, showing Jesus the Son of God as the suffering Servant who 'came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'
How Mark 13:33 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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