Bible Gateway passage: 2 Peter 3 - English Standard Version (2024)

The Day of the Lord Will Come

3This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them ^(A)I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, ^2(B)that you should remember the predictions of ^(C)the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, ³knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come ^(D)in the last days with scoffing, ^(E)following their own sinful desires. ^4(F)They will say, “Where is the promise of ^(G)his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” ⁵For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth ^(H)was formed out of water and through water ^(I)by the word of God, ⁶and that by means of these the world that then existed ^(J)was deluged with water and ^(K)perished. ⁷But by the same word ^(L)the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and ^(M)destruction of the ungodly.

⁸But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and ^(N)a thousand years as one day. ^9(O)The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise ^(P)as some count slowness, but ^(Q)is patient toward you,^{[a] (R)}not wishing that any should perish, but ^(S)that all should reach repentance. ¹⁰But ^(T)the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then ^(U)the heavens will pass away with a roar, and ^(V)the heavenly bodies^[b] will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.^[c]

¹¹Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, ^(W)what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, ^12(X)waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and ^(Y)the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! ¹³But according to his promise we are waiting for ^(Z)new heavens and a new earth ^(AA)in which righteousness dwells.

Final Words

^14(AB)Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him ^(AC)without spot or ^(AD)blemish, and ^(AE)at peace. ¹⁵And count ^(AF)the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as ^(AG)our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you ^(AH)according to the wisdom given him, ¹⁶as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. ^(AI)There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, ^(AJ)as they do the other Scriptures. ¹⁷You therefore, beloved, ^(AK)knowing this beforehand, ^(AL)take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. ¹⁸But ^(AM)grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. ^(AN)To him be the glory both now and to the day of ^(AO)eternity. Amen.