And as were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of man.

And the people [i.e., of Noah's day] did not know [when it would happen] until the Flood came and swept them all away. It will be the same way when the presence of the Son of man [arrives].

Let this Christ, the king of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see it and believe!" And the men who were crucified with him abused him.

And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.

They kept saying, "This is Jesus, the son of Joseph, isn't it, whose father and mother we know? So how can he say, "I have come down from heaven'?"

Then the Jewish leaders were astonished and said, "How does this man know so much when he has never had formal instruction?"

For the high priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where he was should let them know, so that they might arrest him.

I have told you these things [now], so that when their time comes, you will remember that I told you about them. I did not say these things to you at the beginning, because I was with you.

By faith in His name, His name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. So the faith that comes through Him has given him this perfect health in front of all of you.

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I often planned to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now), so that I might reap a harvest among you, just as I have among the rest of the gentiles.

And to make clear his righteousness now, so that he might himself be upright, and give righteousness to him who has faith in Jesus.

even so these also have not believed now, so that through your mercy they may also obtain mercy.

But I have not availed myself of any of these rights. And I am not writing this now so that I may become an illustration of this; I had rather die than do that. No one shall deprive me of this boast of mine.

You put up with fools so readily, you who know so much!

I encouraged Titus to visit you, and I sent along with him the brother you know so well. Titus didn't take advantage of you, did he? We conducted ourselves with the same spirit, didn't we? We took the very same steps, didn't we?

Indeed, I wish I were with you right now so that I could change the tone of my voice, because I am completely baffled by you!

Now, so that you also may know {my circumstances}, what I am doing, Tychicus, my dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will make known to you all [things],

And last of all, the prayer which we make to you from our heart and in the name of the Lord Jesus, is this: that as we made clear to you what sort of behaviour is pleasing to God, as in fact you are doing now, so you will go on in these ways, but more and more.

And you know that which restrains [him] now, so that he will be revealed in his own time.

But above all, my fellow believers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but let your yes be [a truthful] yes, and your no be [a truthful] no, so that you may not fall under judgment.

These people had disobeyed [Noah's preaching, See II Pet. 2:5] back when God's patience waited [for them to repent, See Gen. 6:3], during the days of Noah, when the ship was being constructed. It was by that means [i.e., the ship floating them to safety through the Flood waters] that a few persons, eight of them, were saved [from destruction] through water.

and if He did not spare the ancient world of Noah's day, when He brought a flood on those ungodly people (though Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven other people, were saved from it);

[And] it was by water that the world, which existed at that time, perished in a great flood [of Noah's day]!