1•1Simeon¹ Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who have obtained a faith of equal honor with ours in the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.²

•2May grace and peace be multiplied to ^†you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

•3His³ divine power has given us all things that [pertain] to life and reverence, through the knowledge of the One who called us to⁴ [his] own glory and virtue. •4Through these things he has given us precious and very great promises, so that through these ^†you might become partners in the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by means of desire. •5Now indeed for this very [reason] apply all diligence to supply with ^†your faith virtue, and with virtue knowledge, •6and with knowledge self-control, and with self-control endurance, and with endurance reverence, •7and with reverence brotherly friendship,⁵ and with brotherly friendship⁵ love. •8For if these things are ^†yours and are increasing, they make ^†you not [to be] ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. •9For whoever does not have these things is blind and nearsighted and has forgotten the cleansing [he received] from his old sins. •10Therefore, brothers, be the more diligent to make ^†your calling and choosing [by God] firm, for if ^†you do these things ^†you shall never trip [and fall]. •11For in this way there will be richly supplied to ^†you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

•12That is why I am always going to keep reminding ^†you about these things, even though ^†you know [them] and are established in the truth that ^†you have. •13And I consider [it] right, as long as I am in this [bodily] tent, to keep stirring ^†you up by way of reminder, •14since I know that the putting off of my tent is [to be] soon, just as indeed our Lord Jesus Christ indicated to me. •15And I will also

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•16For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to ^†you the power and arrival of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. •17For he received honor and glory from God the Father when such a voice as this was brought about to him by the Magnificent Glory, "This is my beloved Son,⁶ with whom I am well pleased." •18And we heard this voice brought about from heaven, when we were with him in the holy mountain. •19And we have the prophetic word made more firm. ^†You do well to pay attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in ^†your hearts. •20[But] first ^†you must know this, that no prophecy of scripture is [a matter] of private interpretation, •21for no prophecy was ever brought about by the will of man, but men spoke from God⁷ [as they were] moved by the Holy Spirit.

2•1But there were also false prophets among the people, as indeed there will be false teachers among ^†you, who will secretly bring in destructive party opinions, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction. •2And many will follow their unrestrained sensuality; because of them the way of truth will be slandered. •3And in [their] greed they will exploit ^†you with fabricated words; from long ago their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not been drowsy.

•4For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast [them] down to Tartarus¹ and committed [them] to chains² of gloom to be kept until the judgment; •5and [if] he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, one of [only] eight, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the irreverent; •6and [if] by turning the cities of Sodom and

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Gomorrah to ashes he condemned [them] to ruin³ and provided an example of things going [to happen] to the irreverent;⁴ •7and [if] he rescued righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the conduct of unrestrained sensuality of the unprincipled •8(for by what that righteous man saw and heard as he lived among them, he felt [his] righteous soul tormented day after day with [their] lawless deeds), •9[then] the Lord knows how to rescue the reverent from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, •10and especially those who walk after the flesh in the desire of pollution and despise lordship.

Daring [and] stubborn, they do not tremble at slandering glorious ones, •11whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring a slanderous judgment against them from the Lord.⁵ •12But these, like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born to be captured and perish, slandering in matters of which they are ignorant, will indeed perish in their corruption, •13being treated unrighteously as⁶ the wages of [their] unrighteousness. Considering revelry in the daytime [to be] a pleasure, [they are] spots and blemishes, reveling in their deceitful pleasures⁷ while they feast with ^†you. •14They have eyes that are full of [desire for] an adulteress and [are] unceasingly [looking] for sin. They entice unstable souls. They have a heart that is exercised in greed. Accursed children! •15Forsaking the straight way they have gone astray; they have followed the way of Balaam, the [son] of Bosor,⁸ who loved the wages of unrighteousness, •16but was reproved for [his] own violation of law; a dumb burro speaking with a man's voice restrained the prophet's insanity.

•17These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved. •18For, speaking swollen [words] of vanity, they entice with sensual desires of the flesh the [people] who are barely⁹ escaping from those who live in error. •19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what someone has been defeated, to this he has been enslaved. •20For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world by the

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knowledge of our¹⁰ Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and defeated, the last [state] has become worse for them than the first. •21For it would have been 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. •22It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "The dog turns again to [his] own vomit,"¹¹ and the sow that had bathed to wallowing in the mire.

3•1This is already, beloved, the second letter that I am writing to ^†you, [and] in [both of] them I am trying to stir up ^†your sincere mind by way of reminder; •2that ^†you might remember the words previously spoken by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior [through] ^†your apostles. •3But first ^†you must know this, that mockers will come in the last days with mocking, walking in accordance with their own desires, •4and saying, "Where is the promise of his arrival? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued like this from the beginning of creation." •5For in wishing this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God heavens existed long ago, and an earth [was] formed out of water and through water. •6Through these things the world that then [existed] was flooded with water and destroyed. •7But by the same word the heavens and earth that now [exist] have been stored up for fire, kept until the day of judgment and destruction of irreverent men.

•8But this one [fact] must not escape ^†your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day [is] as a thousand years, and "a thousand years as one day."¹ •9The Lord is not slow regarding [his] promise as some consider slowness, but is patient toward ^†you,² not wanting for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. •10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief,³ in which the heavens will pass away with a whizzing noise, and the elements will be dissolved with intense heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be found [out].⁴ •11Since all these things are to be

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dissolved like this, what sort [of persons] ought ^†you to be in holy conduct and reverence, •12looking for and hurrying⁵ up the arrival of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the elements will melt with intense heat! •13But in accordance with his promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

•14Therefore, beloved, since ^†you are looking for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and unblemished. •15And consider the patience of our Lord [as] salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to ^†you in accordance with the wisdom given him, •16as also in all [his] letters, speaking in them about these things. In them there are some things hard to understand, which the unlearned and unstable twist⁶ to their own destruction, as [they do] also the rest of the scriptures. •17^†You therefore, beloved, knowing [this] beforehand, keep on ^†your guard, lest ^†you be carried away with the error of the unprincipled and fall from [^†your] own stability. •18But keep growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him [be] the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.⁷