Inasmuch as his power divine has bestowed on us every requisite for life and piety by the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence ??4 bestowing on us thereby promises precious and supreme, that by means of them you may escape the corruption produced within the world by lust, and participate in the divine nature ??5 for this very reason, do you contrive to make it your whole concern to furnish your faith with resolution, resolution with intelligence,

whereas he who has not these by him is blind, shortsighted, oblivious that he has been cleansed from his erstwhile sins.

Yes, and I will see to it that even when I am gone, you will keep this constantly in mind.

For it was no fabricated fables that we followed when we reported to you the power and advent of our Lord Jesus Christ; we were admitted to the spectacle of his sovereignty,

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

and thus we have gained fresh confirmation of the prophetic word. Pray attend to that word; it shines like a lamp within a darksome spot, till the Day dawns and the daystar rises within your hearts ??20 understanding this, at the outset, that no prophetic scripture allows a man to interpret it by himself;

for prophecy never came by human impulse, it was when carried away by the holy Spirit that the holy men of God spoke.

(for when that righteous man resided among them, by what he saw and heard his righteous soul was vexed day after day with their unlawful doings) ??9 then be sure the Lord knows how to rescue pious folk from trial, and how to keep the unrighteous under punishment till the day of doom,

To begin with, you know that mockers will come with their mockeries in the last days, men who go by their own passions,

They wilfully ignore the fact that heavens existed long ago, and an earth which the word of God formed of water and by water.

Beloved, you must not ignore this one fact, that with the Lord a single day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a single day.

It is new heavens and a new earth that we expect, as He has promised, and in them dwells righteousness.

And consider that the longsuffering of our Lord means salvation; as indeed our beloved brother Paul has written to you out of the wisdom vouchsafed to him,