
Peter's Second Letter

   {1:1} Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those
who have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of
our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: {1:2} Grace to you and peace be
multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, {1:3} seeing
that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life
and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own
glory and virtue; {1:4} by which he has granted to us his precious and
exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the
world by lust. {1:5} Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part
all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral
excellence, knowledge; {1:6} and in knowledge, self-control; and in
self-control patience; and in patience godliness; {1:7} and in
godliness brotherly affection; and in brotherly affection, love. {1:8}
For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle
nor unfruitful to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. {1:9} For he
who lacks these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having
forgotten the cleansing from his old sins. {1:10} Therefore,
[1>]brothers,[<1] be more diligent to make your calling and election
sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. {1:11} For
thus you will be richly supplied with the entrance into the eternal
Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

   {1:12} Therefore I will not be negligent to remind you of these
things, though you know them, and are established in the present truth.
{1:13} I think it right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up
by reminding you; {1:14} knowing that the putting off of my tent comes
swiftly, even as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. {1:15} Yes, I
will make every effort that you may always be able to remember these
things even after my departure. {1:16} For we did not follow cunningly
devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. {1:17} For
he received from God the Father honor and glory, when the voice came to
him from the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased."[2] {1:18} We heard this voice come out of heaven when we were
with him on the holy mountain.

   {1:19} We have the more sure word of prophecy; and you do well that
you heed it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns,
and the morning star arises in your hearts: {1:20} knowing this first,
that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation. {1:21} For
no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke,
being moved by the Holy Spirit.

   {2:1} But false prophets also arose among the people, as false
teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive
heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on
themselves swift destruction. {2:2} Many will follow their
[3>]immoral[<3] ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be
maligned. {2:3} In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive
words: whose sentence now from of old doesn't linger, and their
destruction will not slumber. {2:4} For if God didn't spare angels when
they sinned, but cast them down to [4>]Tartarus[<4], and committed them
to pits of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; {2:5} and didn't
spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a
preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the
ungodly; {2:6} and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes,
condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who
would live ungodly; {2:7} and delivered righteous Lot, who was very
distressed by the lustful life of the wicked {2:8} (for that righteous
man dwelling among them, was tormented in his righteous soul from day
to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds): {2:9} the Lord knows how
to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous
under punishment for the day of judgment; {2:10} but chiefly those who
walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement, and despise authority.
Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries;
{2:11} whereas angels, though greater in might and power, don't bring a
railing judgment against them before the Lord. {2:12} But these, as
unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed,
speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant, will in their
destroying surely be destroyed, {2:13} receiving the wages of
unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime,
spots and blemishes, reveling in their deceit while they feast with
you; {2:14} having eyes full of adultery, and who can't cease from sin;
enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of
cursing; {2:15} forsaking the right way, they went astray, having
followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of
wrongdoing; {2:16} but he was rebuked for his own disobedience. A mute
donkey spoke with a man's voice and stopped the madness of the prophet.
{2:17} These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm; for
whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. {2:18} For,
uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of
the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those
who live in error; {2:19} promising them liberty, while they themselves
are bondservants of corruption; for a man is brought into bondage by
whoever overcomes him.

   {2:20} For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world
through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are
again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for
them than the first. {2:21} For it would be better for them not to have
known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back
from the holy commandment delivered to them. {2:22} But it has happened
to them according to the true proverb, "The dog turns to his own vomit
again,"[5] and "the sow that has washed to wallowing in the mire."

   {3:1} This is now, beloved, the second letter that I have written to
you; and in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by reminding you;
{3:2} that you should remember the words which were spoken before by
the holy prophets, and the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord
and Savior: {3:3} knowing this first, that in the last days mockers
will come, walking after their own lusts, {3:4} and saying, "Where is
the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell
asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the
creation." {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; {3:6} by which means the world that then was, being
overflowed with water, perished. {3:7} But the heavens that now are,
and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being
reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
{3:8} But don't forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with
the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. {3:9}
The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness;
but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that
all should come to repentance. {3:10} But the day of the Lord will come
as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a
great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and
the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. {3:11}
Therefore since all these things will be destroyed like this, what kind
of people ought you to be in holy living and godliness, {3:12} looking
for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, which will
cause the burning heavens to be dissolved, and the elements will melt
with fervent heat? {3:13} But, according to his promise, we look for
new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

   {3:14} Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be
diligent to be found in peace, without blemish and blameless in his
sight. {3:15} Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; even as our
beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote
to you; {3:16} as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of these
things. In those, there are some things that are hard to understand,
which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other
Scriptures, to their own destruction. {3:17} You therefore, beloved,
knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with
the error of the wicked, you fall from your own steadfastness. {3:18}
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.





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Footnotes:
[1] {1:10} The word for "brothers" here and where context allows may
also be correctly translated "brothers and sisters" or "siblings."

[2] {1:17} Matthew 17:5; Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35

[3] {2:2} TR reads "destructive" instead of "immoral"

[4] {2:4} Tartarus is another name for Hell

[5] {2:22} Proverbs 26:11

