and they didn’t know until the flood came, and took them all away, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Parallel Translations
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and they didn’t know until the flood came, and took them all away, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.
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and knewe of nothynge tyll the floude came and toke them all awaye. So shall also the commynge of the sonne of man be.
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And knewe nothing, till the flood came, and tooke them all away, so shall also the comming of the Sonne of man be.
Cross-references (13)
Passages linked to Matthew 24:39 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- John 3:20 For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.
- Matthew 24:37 “As the days of Noah were, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.
- Acts 13:41 ‘Behold, you scoffers, and wonder, and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work which you will in no way believe, if one declares it to you.’ ”
- Proverbs 24:12 If you say, “Behold, we didn’t know this,” doesn’t he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, doesn’t he know it? Shall he not render to every man according to his work?
- Isaiah 44:18-19 They don’t know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see; and their hearts, that they can’t understand. No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, “I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?”
- Proverbs 29:7 The righteous care about justice for the poor. The wicked aren’t concerned about knowledge.
- 2 Peter 3:5 For this they willfully forget that there were heavens from of old, and an earth formed out of water and amid water by the word of God,
- Judges 20:34 Ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel came over against Gibeah, and the battle was severe; but they didn’t know that disaster was close to them.
- Proverbs 23:35 “They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I don’t feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I can find another.”
- Isaiah 42:25 Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him, and the strength of battle. It set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know. It burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.”
- Matthew 13:13-15 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they don’t see, and hearing, they don’t hear, neither do they understand. In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, ‘By hearing you will hear, and will in no way understand; Seeing you will see, and will in no way perceive: for this people’s heart has grown callous, their ears are dull of hearing, they have closed their eyes; or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and would turn again; and I would heal them.’
- Luke 19:44 and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn’t know the time of your visitation.”
- Romans 1:28 Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (8 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 39 And knew not until the flood came, and…
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Ver. 39. And knew not] i.e. They took no knowledge of Noah’s predictions, or their own peril. Their wits they had buried in their guts, their brains in their bellies (as of the ass fish it is said (Arist. de Anim.) that contrary to all other living creatures, he hath his heart in his belly); "whoredom, wine, and new wine take away the heart," Hos 4:11. Carnal sins disable nature, and so set men in a greater distance from grace, which is seated in the powers of nature. I read of some desperate wretches that drinking together, when one of them had drunk himself stark dead, the other, no wit warned by that fearful example of God’s wrath, poured his part of drink into the dead man’s belly, in quodam episcopatu potaverunt aliqui, &c. in which a certain bishop drank some. (John Manl.)
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And took them all away] Men are never less safe than when they are most secure. Babylon bore itself bold upon the twenty years’ provision laid up beforehand, to stand out at siege. When it was nevertheless taken by Cyrus, some part of the city would not know or believe of three days after, that there was any such matter. (Herodot. lib. 1; Arist. Polit. lib. 3.)
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Then shall two be in the field,.... About their…
Then shall two be in the field,.... About their proper business, of husbandry, ploughing, or sowing, or any other rural employment:
the one shall be taken; not by the preaching of the Gospel, into the kingdom of God, or Gospel dispensation; though such a distinction God makes, by the ministry of the word, accompanied by his Spirit and power; nor by angels, to meet Christ in the air, and to be introduced into his kingdom and glory; but by the eagles, the Roman army, and either killed or carried captive by them:
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and the other left; not in a state of nature and unregeneracy, as many are, to whom the Gospel is preached; nor with devils at the last day, to be thrust down by them into the infernal regions; but by the Romans, being by some remarkable providence, or another, delivered out of their hands; which was the case of some few, and these of the meaner sort; and therefore persons of a rural life and occupation are instanced in.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 39. And knew not] They considered not -…
Verse 39. And knew not] They considered not - did not lay Noah's warning to heart, till it was too late to profit by it: so shall it be - and so it was in this coming of the Son of man.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain They knew not - That is, they knew not…
They knew not - That is, they knew not the exact time until it came upon them. So, says he, it shall be when the Son of man shall come. They shall not know “the precise time” until he comes, and then they will be found engaged in the ordinary business of life unconcerned.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain And they thought not of the deluge, though preached…
And they thought not of the deluge, though preached and predicted by Noe, (which rendered their ignorance and incredulity inexcusable) till it came and swept them all away. So shall it be at the coming of the Son of man. St. Luke adds, (chap. xvii, ver. 28,) likewise as it was in the days of Lot; they shall be eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, i.e. totally immersed in worldly pursuits. Hence the apostle; when they shall say peace, viz. from past evils, and security, viz. from future, then shall destruction come upon them on a sudden. But some one may ask, how can there possibly be all this peace, all this security, when the evils mentioned above, famines, wars, plagues, earthquakes, and particularly the darkness of the sun, &c. &c. are presages calculated to strike with panic and consternation minds the most thoughtless and giddy? I answer, that the wicked are chiefly designed here, who in the midst of the afflictions and alarms of the good, will still indulge in their pleasures and luxuries, like cruel soldiers, whilst the peaceable inhabitants are plundered. St. Jerome adds, that the world for some time before its final dissolution, will be freed from all those calamities. As to what is said (ver. 29,) of the darkness of the sun and moon, these are circumstances that refer to the very coming of the judge. (Jansenius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (39) So shall also the coming of the Son…
(39) So shall also the coming of the Son of man be.—The words justify the interpretation given above of Mat_24:29-30. If the “signs” of the Advent were to be phenomena visible to the eye of sense, there could not be this reckless apathy of nescience. If they are to be tokens, “signs of the times,” which can be discerned only by the illumined insight of the faithful, the hardened unbelief on the one side, and the expectant watchfulness on the other, are the natural result of the power or the want of power to discern them.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Knew not. They would not comprehend the signs of…
Knew not. They would not comprehend the signs of the coming judgment, or, at any rate, refused to profit by them, preferring their own carnal pleasures to the care of their souls and the amendment of their lives. The Lord assures us that similar recklessness and unbelief will be found at his coming. Doubtless anguish and fear will fill many hearts, but the general feeling will be incredulity, and a false security which refuses to take warning. Sadler compares it to Belshazzar"s feast at the very moment of danger, and the Athenians" insensibility at the time of the great plague, when the people seemed to be exemplifying the maxim, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die". (Isa_22:18) "For like as when the ark was making, they believed not; but while it was set in the midst of them, proclaiming beforehand the evils that are to come, they, when they saw it, lived in pleasure... so also now, antichrist, indeed, shall appear, after whom is the end, and the punishments at the end, and vengeance intolerable; but they that are held by the intoxication of wickedness (comp. RAPC Wis 4:12) shall not so much as perceive the dreadful nature of the things that are on the point of being done. Wherefore also Paul saith, "as travail upon a woman with child", (1Th_5:8) even so shall those fearful and incurable evils come upon them" (Chrysostom, "Hom.," in loc. ). Morisen considers that Christ is not blaming the antediluvians, but simply referring to the fact that up to the last moment they were ignorant of the impending catastrophe. But this seems inadequate.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain Son of man
Son of man
(See Scofield "Mat 8:20")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.