Copyright  Timothy E. Clontz 1999  All rights reserved.
The Second Letter 
of Peter

1
	1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those 
who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness 
of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2 grace and peace be multiplied to 
you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 
	3 His divine power has 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 By these he has granted to us his precious 
and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the 
corruption that is in the world because of lust, and become partakers of 
the divine nature. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your 
faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge, 6 and to knowledge, self-control, 
and to self-control, perseverance, and to perseverance, godliness, 7 and to 
godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if 
these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being 
ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For 
whoever lacks these things is blind and shortsighted, and has forgotten 
that he was cleansed from his old sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be all the 
more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these 
things, you will never fall; 11 so there will be an entrance richly provided 
for you into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 
	12 Therefore I will always remind you of these things, even 
though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now 
have. 13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way 
of reminder, 14 since I know that the putting aside of my body will be 
soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will see to 
it that after my departure you will be able at any time to call these things 
to mind. 
	16 For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made 
known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we 
were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received honor and glory 
from God the Father when the voice came to him by the Majestic Glory, 
saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." 18 We 
ourselves heard this voice coming from heaven when we were with him on 
the holy mountain. 19 And we have the prophetic word made more sure, 
and you will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark 
place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 
First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a 
matter of one's own interpretation, 21 for no prophecy was ever made by 
the act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. 
2
	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 
licentiousness, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled. 3 
And in their greed they will exploit you with false words; from long ago 
their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not been 
asleep. 
	4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast 
them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved for 
judgment; 5 and if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved 
Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a 
flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 and if he condemned the cities of 
Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having 
made them an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter; 7 and 
if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives 
of lawless men 8 (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while 
living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their 
lawless deeds), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, 
and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, 
10 and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desire and 
despise authority. 
	Bold and willful, they are not afraid to revile the glorious ones, 
11 whereas angels, though greater in power and might, do not bring a 
reviling judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like 
irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed, 
reviling in matters of which they are ignorant, will be destroyed in the 
same destruction with them, 13 suffering wrong for their wrongdoing. 
They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and 
blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you. 14 They 
have eyes full of adultery, that never cease from sin; they entice unstable 
souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking 
the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, 
the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16 but he was 
rebuked for his own transgression by a donkeya beast without 
speechwho spoke with a man's voice and restrained the prophet's 
madness. 
	17 These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm; 
for them the blackest darkness has been reserved. 18 For 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 They promise 
them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for 
whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they 
have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord 
and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are 
overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For 
it would have been better for them not to have known the way of 
righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy 
commandment handed on to them. 22 It has happened to them according 
to the true proverb, 
	"A dog turns back to its own vomit," 
and,
	"A sow, after having washed, returns to wallowing in the mire."
3
	1 This is now the second letter that I have written to you, 
beloved, and in both of them I have aroused your sincere mind by way of 
reminder; 2 that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by 
the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken 
through your apostles. 3 First of all you must understand this, that 
scoffers will come in the last days, with scoffing, following their own 
lusts 4 and saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since 
the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning 
of creation." 5 They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God 
heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and by 
means of water, 6 through which the world at that time was destroyed, 
being deluged with water. 7 But by the same word the present heavens 
and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and 
destruction of ungodly men. 
	8 But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one 
day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. 9 The 
Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is 
patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to 
repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the 
heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed 
with fire, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 
Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people 
ought you to be in holy lives and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening 
the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be 
destroyed by fire, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But 
according to his promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, 
in which righteousness dwells. 
	14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be 
diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless. 15 And 
regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved 
brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you. 16 He 
writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. 
His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which 
ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to 
their own destruction. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this 
beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error 
of lawless men and fall from your own steadfastness. 18 But grow 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. 



Second Peter, page 1
