Luke 17:20–37

THE COMING OF THE KINGDOM

²⁰When he was^ap asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come,^aq he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with something observable; ²¹no one will say, ^B‘See here!’ or ‘There!’ For you see, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”^C

²²Then he told the disciples, “The days are coming^a when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you won’t see it.^{b 23}They will say to you,^c ‘See there!’ or ‘See here!’ Don’t follow or run after them.^{d 24}For as the lightning flashes from horizon to horizon and lights up the sky, so the Son of Man will be in his day.^{e 25}But first it is necessary that he suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.^f

²⁶“Just as it was in the days of Noah,^g so it will be in the days of the Son of Man: ²⁷People went on eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage^h until the day Noah boarded the ark,ⁱ and the flood came and destroyed them all. ²⁸It will be the same as it was in the days of Lot:^j People went on eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building. ²⁹But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed^k them all. ³⁰It^l will be like that on the day the Son of Man is revealed.^{m 31}On that day, a man on the housetop, whose belongings are in the house, must not come down to get them. Likewise the man who is in the field must not turn back. ³²Remember Lot’s wife!^{n 33}Whoever tries to make his life secure^DE will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.^{o 34}I tell you, on that night^p two will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left. ³⁵Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”

³⁷“Where, Lord?”^q they asked him.

He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there also the vultures^r will be gathered.”