The Lord is not slow respecting the promise, as some account slowness; but He is long-suffering toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? for, from the day the fathers fell asleep, all things remain as they were from the beginning of the creation."

knowing this, first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of one's own interpretation;

for prophecy was never brought by the will of man, but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit.

since His divine power has given to us all things pertaining to life and godliness, through the full knowledge of Him Who called us through His glory and virtue;

But there arose false prophets also among the people, as among you also there will be false teachers, who, indeed, will stealthily bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master Who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction:

and in knowledge, continence; and in continence, patience; and in patience, godliness;

for thus shall there be richly supplied to you the entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

and in godliness, brotherly affection; and in brotherly affection, love.

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a rushing noise, and the elements, being intensely hot, shall be dissolved, and the earth and the works therein shall be burned up.

And we have the more sure prophetic word, to which ye do well to take heed, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the Morning Star arise in your hearts;

For these things, belonging to you and abounding, make you neither idle nor unfruitful regarding the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ;

through which have been given to us very great and precious promises, that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world in lust:

And I think it right, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by reminding you;

But, beloved, let not this one thing escape you, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

knowing that speedy is the putting off of my tabernacle, as also our Lord Jesus Christ signified to me.

For, if God spared not angels that sinned, but, hurling them down to Hell, delivered them up to pits of darkness, kept for judgment;

and, even for this very reason, adding all diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in virtue, knowledge;

for he to whom these things are lacking is blind, seeing dimly, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins.

Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who obtained an equally precious faith with us, in the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

For, not as having followed after cunningly-devised stories, did we make known to you the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, but as having been made spectators of His majesty.

Knowing this first, that there will come in the last days scoffers with scoffing, walking after their own desires,

But, according to His promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness,

For He received from God the Father honor and glory, when such a voice was borne to Him from the Excellent Glory, "This is My Son, the Beloved, in Whom I took delight";

And I will also give diligence that at all times ye may be able, after my departure, to perpetuate the remembrance of these things.

as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which the ignorant and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

grace to you, and peace be multiplied in a full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;

and this voice we heard borne from Heaven, when we were with Him in the holy mount.

And account the long-suffering of our Lord salvation; as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you;

Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure; for, if ye do these things, ye shall in nowise ever stumble;

the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to keep the unrighteous enduring punishment unto the day of judgment;

but the present heavens and the earth, by the same word, have been stored up for fire, being kept unto the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

For if, after having escaped the defilements of the world in a full knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but, having again become entangled with these, they are overcome, the last state has become worse with them than the first.

This, a second letter, beloved, I now write to you, in both which I stir up your sincere mind by way of remembrance;

(for this righteous man, dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, was torturing his righteous soul from day to day with their lawless deeds):

looking for, and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens, being on fire, will be dissolved; and the elements, being intensely hot, shall melt!

and delivered righteous Lot, distressed by the conduct of those who were impious in lasciviousness,

But these, as irrational creatures, born naturally for capture and destruction, railing in matters of which they are ignorant, shall in their destruction be also destroyed,

whereas angels, though greater in might and power, bring not a railing judgment against them before the Lord.

leaving the right way, they were led astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness,

having eyes full of lustfulness, and that cannot cease from sin; enticing unstable souls; having a heart exercised in covetousness; children of a curse;

suffering evil as wages of unrighteousness; accounting revelry in the daytime a pleasure; spots and blemishes; reveling in their deceivings, while feasting with you;

that ye remember the words spoken before by holy prophets, and the commandments of the Lord and Savior by your apostles.

and many will follow their lascivious doings; by reason of whom the way of the truth will be defamed;

but had a rebuke for his own transgression; a dumb beast-of-burden, speaking in man's voice, forbade the prophet's madness.

For, uttering great swelling words of vanity, they entice, in desires of the flesh, by their lasciviousness, those just escaping from those who live in error;

These are fountains without water, and mists driven by a storm, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved.

It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "A dog having returned to his own vomit"; and "A sow that was washed, to her wallowing in mire."

For it were better for them not to have fully known the way of righteousness, than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

Seeing, therefore, that all these things are thus to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conduct and godliness,

For this escapes them willingly, that there were heavens of old, and an earth set together out of water, and through water, by the word of God:

and spared not the old world; but preserved Noah, an eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing a flood upon a world of ungodly people;

promising them liberty, while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what one is overcome by this he has become enslaved.

Wherefore, I shall be always ready to remind you of these things, though ye know them, and have become confirmed in the present truth.

and, turning to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, condemned them by an overthrow, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly;

Ye, therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, be on your guard, lest, being carried away with error of the wicked, ye fall from your own steadfastness.

and, in covetousness, will they, with feigned words, make merchandise of you; for whom the judgment from of old lingers not, and their destruction slumbers not.

Wherefore, beloved, since ye are looking for these things, give diligence that ye be found in peace, without spot and blameless in His sight.

but especially those who walk after the flesh in a desire for pollution, and despise dominion; daring, self-willed, they tremble not, when railing at dignities;

through which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished;