Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is.
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.
- BSB Be on your guard and stay alert! For you do not know when the appointed time will come.
- 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 12:40Therefore be ready also, for the Son of Man is coming in an hour that you don’t expect him.”
- Rom 13:11–12Do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed.
- Eph 6:18with all prayer and requests, praying at all times in the Spirit, and being watchful to this end in all perseverance and requests for all the saints:
- Rev 16:15“Behold, I come like a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his clothes, so that he doesn’t walk naked, and they see his shame.”
- Matt 25:13Watch therefore, for you don’t know the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
- 1 Pet 5:8Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
- 1 Pet 4:7But the end of all things is near. Therefore be of sound mind, self-controlled, and sober in prayer.
- Luke 21:34–36“So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly.
- Matt 24:42–44Watch therefore, for you don’t know in what hour your Lord comes.
- Rev 3:2Wake up, and keep the things that remain, which you were about to throw away, for I have found no works of yours perfected before my God.
- 1 Cor 16:13Watch! Stand firm in the faith! Be courageous! Be strong!
- Matt 26:40–41He came to the disciples, and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What, couldn’t you watch with me for one hour?
- Mark 13:23But you watch. “Behold, I have told you all things beforehand.
- Mark 14:37–38He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Couldn’t you watch one hour?
- Mark 13:35–37Watch therefore, for you don’t know when the lord of the house is coming, whether at evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning;
- 1 Th 5:5–8You are all children of light, and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night, nor to darkness,
- Heb 12:15looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and many be defiled by it;
- Rom 13:14But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, for its lusts.
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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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.