Simeon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who did obtain a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ:

As all things to us His divine power (the things pertaining unto life and piety) hath given, through the acknowledgement of him who did call us through glory and worthiness,

for he with whom these things are not present is blind, short-sighted, and has forgotten the purging of his former sins.

For we revealed to you the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, not men who followed in cunningly devised myths, but men who became eyewitnesses of the majesty of that man.

For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

That voice borne from heaven we heard, we who were beside him on the sacred hill,

for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

And through covetousness, with well-turned words, will they make merchandise of you: for whom judgment of old is not idle, and their destruction slumbers not.

For if God spared not the angels who had sinned, but having cast them down to the deepest pit of gloom has delivered them to chains of darkness to be kept for judgment;

and if he spared not the old world, but brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, and saved Noah, the eighth person, who was a preacher of righteousness;

and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter;

and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked

The Lord, therefore, knows how to deliver the pious from temptation, and to keep the wicked, who are even now suffering punishment, in readiness for 'the Day of Judgment'--

and specially those who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise lordship. Bold are they, self-willed; they do not fear speaking injuriously of dignities:

when angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring against them, before the Lord, an injurious charge.

But these men, like irrational animals -- creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed -- do not understand whom they are insulting, and consequently in their destruction they will be destroyed,

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;

having eyes full of adultery, and who can't cease from sin; enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of cursing;

Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

But Balaam was rebuked for his own wrongdoing by a speechless donkey, who spoke out in a man's voice and prevented the prophet from continuing his foolishness.

These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.

For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.

While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

For if people who have escaped from the defiling practices of the world by coming to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, become tangled up in them again, and are overcome by them, these people are worse off than before they were converted.

First of all, know [without any doubt] that mockers will come in the last days with their mocking, following after their own human desires

you who expect and hasten the advent of the Day of God, which dissolves the heavens in fire and makes the stars blaze and melt!

And as he said in all his letters, which had to do with these things; in which are some hard sayings, so that, like the rest of the holy Writings, they are twisted by those who are uncertain and without knowledge, to the destruction of their souls.

But be growing in the favour and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: - unto whom be the glory, both now and unto a day that abideth.