above all knowing this, that in the last days scoffers will come with scoffing, following according to their own desires and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since[a] the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued just as they have been from the beginning of creation.” For when[b] they maintain this, it escapes their notice that the heavens existed long ago and the earth held together out of water and through water by the word of God, by means of which things the world that existed at that time was destroyed by[c] being inundated with water. 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 people.

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Peter 3:4 Literally “from which time
  2. 2 Peter 3:5 Here “when” is supplied as a component of the participle (“maintain”) which is understood as temporal
  3. 2 Peter 3:6 Here “by” is supplied as a component of the participle (“being inundated”) which is understood as means