1This [is] now, beloved, a second letter I write to you, in both which I stir up your pure mind in reminding [you]
2to be mindful of the sayings said before by the holy prophets, and of the command of us the apostles of the LORD and Savior,
3knowing this first, that there will come scoffers in the last days, going on according to their own desires,
4and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things so remain from the beginning of the creation”;
5for this they willingly conceal, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth having been established by the word of God out of water and through water,
6through which the world then, having been flooded by water, was destroyed;
7and by the same word, the present heavens and earth, having been stored up for fire, are being preserved until [the] day of judgment and destruction of impious men.
8And do not let this one thing be concealed from you, beloved, that one day with the LORD [is] as one thousand years and one thousand years as one day;
9the LORD is not slow in regard to the promise, as some count slowness, but is long-suffering to us, not intending any to be lost, but all to come to conversion,
10and it will come—the Day of the LORD—as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a rushing noise, and the elements will be dissolved with burning heat, and [the] earth and the works in it will not be found.
11All these, then, being dissolved, what kind of persons ought you to be in holy behaviors and pious acts,
12waiting for and hurrying the coming of the Day of God, by which the heavens, being on fire, will be dissolved, and the elements will melt with burning heat?
13And we wait for new heavens and a new earth according to His promise, in which righteousness dwells;
14for this reason, beloved, waiting for these things, be diligent, spotless and unblameable, to be found by Him in peace,
15and count the long-suffering of our Lord [as] salvation, according as also our beloved brother Paul—according to the wisdom given to him—wrote to you,
16as also in all the letters, speaking in them concerning these things, among which are some things [that are] hard to be understood, which the untaught and unstable twist, as also the other Writings, to their own destruction.
17You, then, beloved, knowing before, take heed, lest, together with the error of the impious being led away, you may fall from your own steadfastness,
18and increase in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; to Him [is] the glory both now, and to the day of the age! Amen.