| Increasing Moral Growth Of The Faithful | |
| 1 | 1 Shim‘ōn Peter, a servant and emissary of Yĕshūa̒ the Mĕssiah, to those equally as us allotted the Faith by the justice of our Almĭghty and Savior, Yĕshūa̒ the Mĕssiah. 2 Loving-kindness and shalōm be multiplied to you in the full knowledge of the Almĭghty, and of Yĕshūa̒ our ’Adŏnai̱, 3 as his divine power will have granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence, 4 through which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, in order that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world because of lust. |
| 5 | 5 But due to this same reason, having brought to bear all diligence, supply with your faithfulness virtue, and with virtue knowledge, 6 and with your knowledge, self-control, and with your self-control, steadfast endurance, and with your steadfast endurance, devoted reverence; 7 and with your devoted reverence, brotherly friendship, and with your brotherly friendship, love. 8 Because if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our ’Adŏnai̱ Yĕshūa̒ the Mĕssiah. 9 Because he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you, because as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble, 11 because in this way the entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our ’Adŏnai̱ and Savior Yĕshūa̒ the Mĕssiah will be abundantly supplied to you. |
| 12 | 12 Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. 13 And I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, 14 knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our ’Adŏnai̱ Yĕshūa̒ the Mĕssiah has made clear to me. 15 And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you may be able to call these things to mind. |
| Eyewitnesses | |
| 16 | 16 Because we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and Advent of our ’Adŏnai̱ Yĕshūa̒ the Mĕssiah, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 Because when he received honor and glory from the Almĭghty Făther, such an utterance as this was made to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Sŏn with whom I am well-pleased”—18 and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. |
| 19 | 19 And so we hold firmly the prophetic word, to which you do well to pay attention, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the light bearer may arise in your hearts. 20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is let loose by mere coincidence, 21 because no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spĭrit spoke from the Almĭghty. |
| The Rise of False Prophets | |
| 1 | 1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them, the way of the truth will be maligned. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. |
| 4 | 4 Because if the Almĭghty did not spare messengers when they sinned, but with chains of blackness he tartarized them, handing them over to be guarded for judgment, 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Nōaḥ, a proclaimer of justice, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, 6 and if he condemned the cities of Sedōm and ‘Amōrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter, 7 and if he rescued righteous Lōt, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men 8 (because by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day with their lawless deeds), 9 then Yăhwēh knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. |
| 10b | 10b Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile majesties, 11 whereas messengers who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before Yăhwēh. 12 But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, 13 suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. |
| 13b | 13b They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, 14 having eyes full of adultery and that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children. |
| 15 | 15 Forsaking the right way they have gone astray, having followed the way of Bil‘am, the son of Be‘ōr, who loved the wages of injustice, 16 but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, because a dumb donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet. 17 These are springs without water, and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness is reserved. 18 Because speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, 19 promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption, because by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. |
| 20 | 20 Because if after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of our ’Adŏnai̱ and Savior Yĕshūa̒ the Mĕssiah, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 Because it would be better for them not to have known the way of justice, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.” |
| Purpose of This Letter | |
| 1 | 1 This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of Yăhwēh and Savior spoken by your emissaries. |
| The Coming Day of Yăhwēh | |
| 3 | 3 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? Because ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” 5 Because this willfully escapes their notice, that the heavens and the earth were of old from water, and through water had been put together by the word of the Almĭghty, 6 through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. 7 But the present heavens and earth by his word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. |
| 8 | 8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with Yăhwēh one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 Yăhwēh is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. |
| A New Heaven and Earth | |
| 10 | 10 But the day of Yăhwēh will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. |
| 11 | 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 awaiting and being urgent for the Advent of the day of the Almĭghty, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to his promise we are looking for a new heavens and a new earth, in which justice dwells. 14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by him in shalōm, spotless and blameless, 15 and regard the patience of our ’Adŏnai̱ to be for salvation, just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, 16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as also other writings, to their own destruction. |
| 17 | 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness, 18 but grow in the loving-kindness and knowledge of our ’Adŏnai̱ and Savior Yĕshūa̒ the Mĕssiah. To him be the glory, even now and to the day of time immemorial. ’Amēn. |