CHAPTER 1

Peter exhorts the saints to make their calling and election sure—Prophecy comes by the power of the Holy Ghost.

1 SIMON Peter, a aservant and an bapostle• of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained clike• precious faith with us through the drighteousness eof• God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:

2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the aknowledge• of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

3 According as his divine power hath given unto us aall• things that pertain unto blife• and cgodliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us dto• glory and evirtue:

4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious apromises: that by these ye might be bpartakers• of the cdivine dnature•, having eescaped• the fcorruption that is in the world through glust.

5 And beside this, giving all adiligence, add to your faith bvirtue; and to virtue cknowledge;

6 And to knowledge atemperance•; and to temperance bpatience; and to patience cgodliness•;

7 And to godliness abrotherly bkindness; and to brotherly kindness ccharity.

8 For if these things be in you, and aabound, they make you that ye shall neither be bbarren• nor cunfruitful• in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and aelection sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never bfall•:

11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the aeverlasting bkingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

12 Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.

13 Yea, I think it ameet•, as long as I am in this btabernacle•, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;

14 Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath ashewed• me.

15 Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.

16 For we have not followed cunningly devised afables•, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were beyewitnesses• of his majesty.

17 For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my abeloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

18 And this avoice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy bmount•.

19 aWe• have also a more bsure• word of cprophecy•; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day dstar• arise in your hearts:

20 Knowing this first, that ano• bprophecy of the cscripture is of any private dinterpretation•.

21 For the aprophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God bspake as they were cmoved by the dHoly Ghost.

CHAPTER 2

False teachers among the saints are damned—Lustful saints shall perish in their own corruption.

1 BUT there were afalse prophets also among the people, even as there shall be bfalse cteachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that dbought• them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of atruth shall be evil spoken of.

3 And through covetousness shall they with afeigned• words make merchandise of you: whose bjudgment• now of a long time lingereth not, and their cdamnation slumbereth not.

4 For if God spared not the aangels that sinned, but cast them down to bhell•, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto cjudgment;

5 And spared not the old world, but saved aNoah• the eighth person, a preacher of brighteousness, bringing in the cflood upon the world of the ungodly;

6 And turning the cities of aSodom• and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an bensample• unto those that after should live ungodly;

7 And delivered just aLot•, bvexed• with the cfilthy conversation of the wicked:

8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, avexed• his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)

9 The Lord knoweth how to adeliver the bgodly out of ctemptations, and to dreserve• the unjust unto the day of ejudgment• to be punished:

10 But chiefly them that awalk after the flesh in the blust of cuncleanness, and despise dgovernment•. ePresumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.

11 Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.

12 But these, as anatural• brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly bperish• in their own corruption;

13 And shall receive the areward of unrighteousness, as they that count it bpleasure to criot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;

14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:

15 Which have aforsaken the right bway•, and are gone castray•, following the way of dBalaam• the son of Bosor, who loved the ewages of unrighteousness;

16 But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb aass• speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet.

17 These are awells• without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the bmist• of cdarkness• is reserved for ever.

18 For when they aspeak• great swelling words of bvanity, they callure• through the dlusts• of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean eescaped• from them who live in error.

19 While they promise them aliberty, they themselves are the bservants• of ccorruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in dbondage.

20 For if after they have aescaped• the bpollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are cagain• dentangled• therein, and eovercome•, the latter end is fworse• with them than the beginning.

21 For it had been better for them not to have aknown the way of brighteousness, than, after they have known it, to cturn• from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own avomit• again; and the sow that was bwashed to her wallowing in the mire.

CHAPTER 3

Latter-day scoffers deny the Second Coming—Elements to melt at the coming of the Lord.

1 THIS second epistle, beloved, I now awrite unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of bremembrance•:

2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy aprophets•, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:

3 aKnowing• this first, that there shall come in the blast days scoffers, walking after their own clusts,

4 And saying, aWhere• is the bpromise• of his ccoming•? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

5 For this they willingly are aignorant of, that by the bword of God the heavens were of old, and the cearth standing out of the water and in the water:

6 Whereby the world that then was, being aoverflowed with bwater•, perished:

7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto afire against the day of judgment and bperdition of ungodly men.

8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand ayears•, and a thousand years as one day.

9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is alongsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should bperish•, but that all should come to crepentance.

10 But the aday of the Lord will bcome as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall cpass• away with a great noise, and the delements shall melt with fervent heat, the eearth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what amanner• of persons ought ye to be in all holy bconversation• and godliness,

12 aLooking• for and bhasting unto the ccoming• of the dday• of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new aheavens and a bnew cearth•, wherein dwelleth drighteousness.

14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be adiligent• that ye may be found of him in peace, without bspot•, and blameless.

15 And aaccount• that the blongsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;

16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable awrest•, as they do also the other bscriptures, unto their own destruction.

17 Ye therefore, beloved, aseeing• ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being bled• caway with the error of the wicked, fall from your own dstedfastness.

18 But grow in agrace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.