II Peter 3

¹This, dear friends, is my second letter to you. In both of them I have tried, by appealing to your remembrance, to arouse your better feelings.

²I want you to recall what was foretold by the holy prophets, as well as the command of our Lord and Savior given to you through your apostles.

³First be assured of this, that, as the age draws to an end, scoffers, led by their own passions,

⁴will come and ask scoffingly – ‘Where is his promised coming? Ever since our ancestors passed to their rest, everything remains just as it was when the world was first created!’

⁵For they willfully shut their eyes to the fact that long ago the heavens existed; and the earth, also – formed out of water and by the action of water, by the fiat of God;

⁶and that by the same means the world which then existed was destroyed in a deluge of water.

⁷But the present heavens and earth, by the same fiat, have been reserved for fire, and are being kept for the day of the judgment and destruction of the godless.

⁸But you, dear friends, must never shut your eyes to the fact that, to the Lord, one day is the same as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

⁹The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness; but he is forbearing with you, as it is not his will that any of you should perish, but that all should be brought to repentance.

¹⁰The day of the Lord will come like a thief; and on that day the heavens will pass away with a crash, the elements will be burnt up and dissolved, and the earth and all that is in it will be disclosed.

¹¹Now, since all these things are in the process of dissolution, think what you yourselves ought to be – what holy and pious lives you ought to lead,

¹²while you wait for the coming of the day of God and strive to make it come soon + 3:12 Or: and desire its coming.. At its coming the heavens will be dissolved in fire, and the elements melted by heat,

¹³but we look for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness will have its home, in fulfillment of the promise of God.

¹⁴Therefore, dear friends, in expectation of these things, make every effort to be found by him spotless, blameless, and at peace.

¹⁵Regard our Lord’s forbearance as your one hope of salvation. This is what our dear friend Paul wrote to you, with the wisdom that God gave him.

¹⁶It is the same in all his letters, when he speaks in them about these subjects. There are some things in them difficult to understand, which untaught and weak people distort, just as they do all other writings, to their own ruin.

¹⁷You must, therefore, dear friends, now that you know this beforehand, be on your guard against being led away by the errors of reckless people, and so lapsing from your present steadfastness;

¹⁸and advance in the love and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. All glory be to him now and for ever.

II Peter 3

¹Behold this second epistle I write to you, my dearly beloved, in which, I stir up by way of admonition your sincere mind:

²That you may be mindful of those words which I told you before from the holy prophet and of your apostles, of the precepts of the Lord and Saviour.

³Knowing this first: That in the last days there shall come deceitful scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

⁴Saying: Where is his promise or his coming? For since the time that the fathers slept, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

⁵For this they are wilfully ignorant of: That the heavens were before, and the earth out of water and through water, consisting by the word of God:

⁶Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.

⁷But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of the ungodly men.

⁸But of this one thing be not ignorant, my beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

⁹The Lord delayeth not his promise, as some imagine, but dealeth patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance,

¹⁰But the day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence and the elements shall be melted with heat and the earth and the works which are in it shall be burnt up.

¹¹Seeing then that all these things are to be dissolved, what manner of people ought you to be in holy conversation and godliness?

¹²Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of the Lord, by which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with the burning heat?

¹³But we look for new heavens and a new earth according to his promises, in which justice dwelleth.

¹⁴Wherefore, dearly beloved, waiting for these things, be diligent that you may be found before him unspotted and blameless in peace.

¹⁵And account the longsuffering of our Lord, salvation: as also our most dear brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, hath written to you:

¹⁶As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction.

¹⁷You therefore, brethren, knowing these things before, take heed, lest being led aside by the error of the unwise, you fall from your own steadfastness.

¹⁸But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and unto the day of eternity, Amen.