³ knowing this first, that ^[a]in the last days mockers shall come with mockery, walking after their own lusts, ⁴ and saying, Where is the promise of his ^[b]coming? for, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. ⁵ For this they wilfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of water and ^[c]amidst water, by the word of God; ⁶ by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: ⁷ but the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been ^[d]stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.