²⁶ I think therefore that this is good by reason of the distress that is upon us, `namely,' that it is good for a man to be as he is.

¹ Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.

⁸ But I say to the unmarried and to widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I.

²³ Woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days! for there shall be great distress upon the land, and wrath unto this people.

² Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters, in this place.

³ For thus saith Jehovah concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land:

⁴ They shall die grievous deaths: they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung upon the face of the ground; and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth.

¹⁹ But woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days!

²⁸ But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.

²⁹ For behold, the days are coming, in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the breasts that never gave suck.

²⁸ But shouldest thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Yet such shall have tribulation in the flesh: and I would spare you.

³⁵ And this I say for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is seemly, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.

³⁶ But if any man thinketh that he behaveth himself unseemly toward his virgin `daughter', if she be past the flower of her age, and if need so requireth, let him do what he will; he sinneth not; let them marry.

³⁷ But he that standeth stedfast in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power as touching in his own heart, to keep his own virgin `daughter', shall do well.

³⁸ So then both he that giveth his own virgin `daughter' in marriage doeth well; and he that giveth her not in marriage shall do better.

¹⁷ For the time `is come' for judgment to begin at the house of God: and if `it begin' first at us, what `shall be' the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?