Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.
Parallel translations
- WEB Watch, keep alert, and pray; for you don’t know when the time is.
- BSB Be on your guard and stay alert! For you do not know when the appointed time will come.
- 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 12:40Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.
- Rom 13:11–12And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
- Eph 6:18Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
- Rev 16:15Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
- Matt 25:13Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
- 1 Pet 5:8Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
- 1 Pet 4:7But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.
- Luke 21:34–36And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
- Matt 24:42–44Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
- Rev 3:2Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
- 1 Cor 16:13Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.
- Matt 26:40–41And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?
- Mark 13:23But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things.
- Mark 14:37–38And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour?
- Mark 13:35–37Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:
- 1 Th 5:5–8Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
- Heb 12:15Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
- Rom 13:14But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
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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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