And do this ¹  because we know ²  the time, that it is already the hour for us to awake from sleep, for our salvation is now nearer than when we became believers.

He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, even to the point of death. Remain here and stay alert.”

¹ Your dead will come back to life; your corpses will rise up. Wake up and shout joyfully, you who live in the ground! ²  For you will grow like plants drenched with the morning dew, ³  and the earth will bring forth its dead spirits. ⁴ 

A song of ascents, ²  by Solomon. If the Lord does not build a house, ³  then those who build it work in vain. If the Lord does not guard a city, ⁴  then the watchman stands guard in vain.

if you become ¹  pure ²  and upright, ³  even now he will rouse himself ⁴  for you, and will restore ⁵  your righteous abode. ⁶ 

Stay alert, then, because you do not know when the owner of the house will return – whether during evening, at midnight, when the rooster crows, or at dawn –

Even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night ¹  and finds them alert, ²  blessed are those slaves! ³ 

I rested and slept; I awoke, ¹  for the Lord protects ²  me.

You held my eyelids open; ¹  I was troubled and could not speak. ² 

All of them are clear ¹  to the discerning and upright to those who find knowledge.

Watch out! Stay alert! ¹  For you do not know when the time will come.

The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

The Adjuration Refrain The Beloved to the Maidens: ¹ I admonish you, O maidens of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and by the young does of the open fields: “Do not awake or arouse love until it pleases!”

When their appetites are all stirred up, ¹  I will set out a banquet for them. I will make them drunk so that they will pass out, ²  they will fall asleep forever, they will never wake up,” ³  says the Lord. ⁴ 

“I will make her officials and wise men drunk, along with her governors, leaders, ¹  and warriors. They will fall asleep forever and never wake up,” ²  says the King whose name is the Lord who rules over all. ³ 

But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief ¹  was coming, he would have been alert and would not have let his house be broken into.

Blessed are those slaves ¹  whom their master finds alert ²  when he returns! I tell you the truth, ³  he will dress himself to serve, ⁴  have them take their place at the table, ⁵  and will come ⁶  and wait on them! ⁷