Matthew 24:42

42 `Watch ye therefore, because ye have not known in what hour your Lord doth come;

Matthew 24:42 Meaning and Commentary

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; and it may be our Lord's intention, to lead his disciples gradually, and as it were imperceptibly, to the last scene of things on earth, to make way for the parables and description of the future judgment, in the next chapter; still keeping in view, and having reference to, the subject he had been so long upon.

Matthew 24:42 In-Context

40 Then two men shall be in the field, the one is received, and the one is left;
41 two women shall be grinding in the mill, one is received, and one is left.
42 `Watch ye therefore, because ye have not known in what hour your Lord doth come;
43 and this know, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief doth come, he had watched, and not suffered his house to be broken through;
44 because of this also ye, become ye ready, because in what hour ye do not think, the Son of Man doth come.
Young's Literal Translation is in the public domain.