1

¹ Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received the same precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

² May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the thorough knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord,

³ since his divine power has given to us everything [needful] for life and godliness through the thorough knowledge of him who has called us to glory and moral excellence.

⁴ Through this he has given very great and precious promises, so that by them we may be partakers of the divine nature, [since] we have escaped the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.

⁵ And beside this, be diligent to add to your faith moral excellence; to moral excellence add knowledge.

⁶ To knowledge add self-control; to self-control add patience; to patience add godliness.

⁷ To godliness add brotherly love; to brotherly love add unselfish, unconditional love.

⁸ For if these qualities are in you and are plentiful, they will make you not to be barren or unfruitful in the thorough knowledge concerning our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹ But he who lacks these qualities is blind, short sighted and become forgetful that he was totally cleansed from his past sins.

¹⁰ So now be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure, because if you do these things, you will never fall.

¹¹ For in this way an entry will be supplied to you into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

¹² Therefore I will not be negligent to remind you about these things, though you know [about them], and are firmly established in the present truth.

¹³ Yes, I think it proper that as long as I am in this tent of flesh, to stir up your memory.

¹⁴ I know that I must shortly lay aside this tent of flesh, just as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me.

¹⁵ I'm going to put forth some effort, so that after I die you will have these things always with you.

¹⁶ For we have not followed craftily made up stories when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eyewitnesses of his splendor.

¹⁷ He received honor and glory from God the Father when so great a voice came from the majestic glory, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

¹⁸ We heard this voice, which came from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mountain,

¹⁹ yet we have [something] more substantiated--the prophetic word. You would do well to pay close attention to it as [you would] to a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the Daystar arises in you hearts.

²⁰ This is what is most important that no prophecy of the Scripture is of one's own interpretation.

²¹ For prophecy never was prompted by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke while being prompted by the Holy Spirit.

2

¹ But false prophets were among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly and deceptively bring in destructive heresies, even rejecting the Lord that redeemed them. They will bring on themselves swift destruction.

² Many will follow their destructive ways; because of them others will curse the way of truth.

³ Through selfish desires, they will use you to get rich with [their] deceptive words. For a long time now their judgment is anticipated, and their destruction is not asleep.

⁴ For God did not spare the angels that sinned, but threw [them] into hell and delivered [them] to chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment.

⁵ He did not spare the original world, but saved Noah, the eight [person], a preacher of righteousness, [and] brought the flood on that ungodly world.

⁶ And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, he sentenced them with destruction, making them an example of those who later would live ungodly,

⁷ but he delivered Lot, a just man, vexed by the filthy behavior of the wicked.

⁸ For that righteous man lived among them, and what he heard and saw vexed his righteous soul daily by their wicked actions.

⁹ The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the sinful for punishment on the Day of Judgment,

¹⁰ especially those who follow the flesh in the sensual desires of moral uncleanness and in despising authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed, and are not afraid to speak evil of those in authority.

¹¹ Whereas angels, who are greater in power and strength, do not bring insults against them before the Lord.

¹² But these like wild animals made to be captured and destroyed hurl insults about things that they don't understand and will utterly perish in their own corruption.

¹³ And they will receive the wages of unrighteousness, since they consider it a pleasure to live a sensual life all day long. [They are] stains and blemishes taking delight in their delusion even while they feast with you.

¹⁴ [Their] eyes are full of adultery, and they cannot get enough of sin. They seduce unstable souls; they train their heart for greed; they are cursed children.

¹⁵ They have forsaken the true way and wandered following the ways of Balaam, who loved the wages of unrighteousness,

¹⁶ but was rebuked for his sin. The donkey, which doesn't have human speech, speaking with a human voice kept the prophet from [his] irrational behavior.

¹⁷ These [people] are like wells without water, clouds blown around with a storm, to which the mist of darkness is reserved forever.

¹⁸ For they utter high-sounding nonsense [and] use sensual desires to seduce those who are truly escaped from filthy sins to live in error.

¹⁹ Though they promise them freedom, they are slaves of moral decay, for what a person is overcome by he is made a slave.

²⁰ For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through their knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and again get involved in it and overcome, their latter end is worse for them than before they started.

²¹ For it would have been better for them to not have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn from the holy commandment [which] was delivered to them.

²² What happened to them is according to the true proverb, "The dog returned to his own vomit," and "The pig that was washed to rolling in the mud."

3

¹ This second letter, beloved, I now write to you. In both, I try to stimulate your pure minds by reminding [you] of [these things].

² I want you to remember the words, which were spoken long ago by the holy prophets and the commandment of us apostles of the Lord and Savior.

³ First of all, there will come in the last days mockers living according to their own sensual desires

⁴ and saying, "What about the promise of his coming, for since the fathers died, everything continues just as from the beginning of the creation?"

⁵ For they are willingly ignorant of this, that long ago by the word of God the heavens came into existence as well as the earth standing out of the water and in the water.

⁶ By means of which the world at that time was submerged in water [and] was destroyed.

⁷ But the present heavens and earth, by that same word [of God], are stored, reserved, for fire on the Day of Judgment and damnation of ungodly people.

⁸ But, beloved don't be ignorant of this one thing, that with the Lord one day [is] as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.

⁹ The Lord doesn't procrastinate in keeping his promise as some think, but is long suffering to us not willing that anyone should perish but that all should repent.

¹⁰ The Day of the Lord will come like a thief at night. That [day] the heavens will pass away with a loud, high-pitched roar and the elements will be broken down by fervent heat, and the earth also and its works will totally burned.

¹¹ Now then, all these things will fall apart, so what kind of [people] should you be in holy behavior and godliness?

¹² [You need to be] looking forward to and eagerly desiring the coming of the Day of God, in which the heavens being on fire will be broken up, and the elements will be melted with fervent heat.

¹³ Nevertheless, according to his promise, we look forward to the coming of the new heavens and a new earth where righteousness makes its home.

¹⁴ As a result, beloved, seeing that you look forward to such things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless.

¹⁵ Realize that the Lord's long suffering [is for] salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also has written to you with the wisdom given to him.

¹⁶ So also in all his letters speaking in them about these things; some things in them are hard to understand which those who discard what they've learned and vacillate [in beliefs] wrest, just as they do to other scriptures (to their own destruction).

¹⁷ Therefore, beloved, seeing that you know this ahead of time, be on guard lest you also get lead away with the error of the wicked and fall from your own steadfastness,

¹⁸ instead grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory and honor both now and forever. Amen.