Matthew 24:42

Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

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Word by word — the Greek

Word	Greek	Strong’s	Meaning
Watch	Γρηγορεῖτε Grēgoreite	G1127	to keep awake · verb — present active imperative, 2nd person plural
therefore	οὖν, oun	G3767	(adverbially) certainly · conjunction
for	ὅτι hoti	G3754	demonstrative · conjunction
not	οὐκ ouk	G3756	the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverb · particle — negative
what	ποίᾳ poia	G4169	individualizing interrogative (of character) what sort… · interrogative pronoun — dative singular feminine
hour	ὥρα hṓra	G5610	an "hour" (literally or figuratively)
your	ὑμῶν hymōn	G5216	of (from or concerning) you
Lord	κύριος kurios	G2962	supreme in authority · noun — nominative singular masculine, a title
doth come	ἔρχεται. erchetai	G2064	to come or go (in a great variety of applications · verb — present middle or passive deponent indicative, 3rd person singular

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Luke 21:36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before…
1 Thessalonians 5:6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
Matthew 25:13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
Revelation 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
Matthew 24:36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
1 Corinthians 16:13 Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.
Luke 12:35-40 Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;
Matthew 24:44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

John Gill on Matthew 24:42

Watch therefore,.... Since the time of this desolation is so uncertain, and since it will come upon the Jews unawares, and some wilt escape, whilst others perish; for the words are plainly an inference from what precedes, and clearly relate to things going before, and are not a transition to a new subject: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come; to avenge himself of the unbelieving Jews, and fulfil what he in person, and by his apostles, had predicted and warned them of: though I will not deny, but that what follows may be much better accommodated and applied to the second coming of Christ, and the last judgment, and the behaviour of men with regard to both, than anything said before…

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John Calvin on Matthew 24:37-42

Matthew 24:37-42 Matthew 24:37-42 Mark 13:33 Luke 17:26-37 37. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38. For as in the days that came before the deluge, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, till the day when Noah entered into the ark, 39. And knew not until the deluge came, [160] and took them all away: so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 40. Two men shall then be in the field; one is taken, and the other is left. 41. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; one is taken, and the other is left. 42. Watch therefore, for you know not at what hour your Lord will come. 33. Take heed, watch and pray; for you know no…

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Tyndale Open Study Notes on Matthew 24:42

To keep watch is to maintain active, energetic, single-minded obedience to the Lord (see 25:13; 26:38-41).

Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).

The Church Fathers

He would have them ever ready, and therefore He says, Watch.
— John Chrysostom ((as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)), Catena Aurea by Aquinas

(Hom. in Ev. ii, 3.) To watch is to keep the eyes open, and looking out for the true light, to do and to observe that which one believes, to cast away the darkness of sloth and negligence.
— Gregory the Dialogist ((as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)), Catena Aurea by Aquinas

(non occ.) Foolish are all they, who either profess to know the day of the end of the world, when it is to come, or even the end of their own life, which no one can know unless he is illuminated by the Holy Spirit.
— Augustine of Hippo ((as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)), Catena Aurea by Aquinas

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Matthew, Gospel according to — The author of this book was beyond a doubt the Matthew, an apostle of our Lord, whose name it bears. He wrote the Gospel of Christ according to his own plans and aims, and from his own point of view,…
Olves, Mount of — So called from the olive trees with which its sides are clothed, is a mountain ridge on the east of Jerusalem (1 Kings 11:7; Ezek. 11:23; Zech. 14:4), from which it is separated by the valley of…
Commandments · DISCOURSE — DISCOURSE
Second Coming Of Christ, The · Signs preceding — Signs preceding
Watchfulness · 36:18-21; — 36:18-21;

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).