Beginning
Greetings
1 Simon Peter, a slave and emissary of Messiah Yeshua,
To those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Messiah Yeshua:
2 May grace and shalom be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Yeshua our Lord.
Qualities for Living Forever
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and virtue. 4 Through these things He has given us His precious and magnificent promises,[a] so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, since you have escaped the corruption that evil desires have brought into the world. 5 Now for this very reason, making every effort, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, patience; and to patience, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly love; and to brotherly love, love. [b] 8 For if these qualities are in you and increasing, they keep you from becoming idle and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. 9 But anyone who lacks these qualities is blind—nearsighted because he has forgotten his cleansing from past sins. 10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, make all the more effort to make your calling and election certain—for if you keep doing these things, you will never stumble. 11 For in this way entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Messiah Yeshua, will be richly provided for you.
12 Therefore I intend to keep reminding you of these things, even though you know them and are well-grounded in the truth that you have. 13 I think it right to stir you up with a reminder, as long as I remain alive in this “tent” of a body[c]— 14 knowing that my death[d] is soon, as our Lord Yeshua the Messiah has made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort for you to always remember these things even after my departure.
Distinguishing True Testimony from Tales
16 For we did not follow cleverly concocted tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17 For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, a voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory: “This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased!” [e] 18 And we ourselves heard this voice come out of heaven, when we were with Him on the holy mountain. [f] 19 Furthermore, we have the reliable prophetic word. You do well by paying attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. [g] 20 Above all understand this: no prophecy of Scripture comes about from a person’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever brought forth by human will; rather, people spoke from God as they were moved by the Ruach ha-Kodesh.[h]
False Teachers Condemned
2 But false prophets also arose among the people,[i] just as there will also be false teachers among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies. They will even deny the Master who bought them[j]—bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result the way of the truth will be maligned. 3 In their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction does not slumber.
4 For God did not spare angels when they sinned, but threw them into Sheol.[k] He put them in chains of gloomy darkness, to be held until the judgment. [l] 5 He did not spare the ancient world. He preserved only Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, along with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. 6 He devastated the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ashes[m]—making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly. 7 He rescued Lot, a righteous man deeply troubled by the shameless immorality of the wicked. [n] 8 (For that righteous man, while living among them, was tormented in his righteous soul day after day by lawless deeds he saw and heard.) 9 Therefore the Lord certainly knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and how to keep the unrighteous being punished until the Day of Judgment— 10 especially those who follow after the flesh in its unclean desires and who despise the Lord’s authority.[o]
Brazen and arrogant, these people do not tremble while slandering glorious beings; 11 yet even angels, though stronger and more powerful, do not bring a slanderous charge against them before the Lord. [p] 12 But these people are like irrational animals—creatures of instinct born to be captured and killed. They malign what they don’t understand, and in their destruction they will be utterly destroyed. 13 They will be paid back for what they have done—evil for evil.[q] They consider carousing in broad daylight a pleasure. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceitful pleasures while feasting together with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery that never stop sinning, enticing unstable souls. They have hearts trained in greed—a cursed brood! 15 They have abandoned the straight way. They have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor,[r] who loved the wages of wickedness. 16 But he received a rebuke for his own wrongdoing. A dumb donkey spoke with a man’s voice and put a stop to the prophet’s madness.[s]
17 These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. The gloom of utter darkness has been reserved for them. [t] 18 For by mouthing grandiosities that amount to nothing, they entice in sensual fleshly passions those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption—for a person is a slave to whatever has overcome him. 20 For if—after escaping the world’s pollutions through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Yeshua the Messiah—they again become entangled in these things and are overcome, the end for them has become worse than the beginning. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after learning about it, to turn back from the holy commandment passed on to them. [u] 22 What has happened to them confirms the truth of the proverb, “A dog returns to its vomit,”[v] and “A scrubbed pig heads right back into the mud.”
The Day of the Lord Is Coming
3 Loved ones, this is now the second letter that I am writing to you. In both I am trying to stir you up by way of a reminder to wholesome thinking— 2 to remember the words previously proclaimed by the holy prophets and the commandment of our Lord and Savior through your emissaries. [w] 3 First of all, understand that in the last days, scoffers will come scoffing, following after their own desires [x] 4 and saying, “Where is this promise of His coming?[y] Ever since the fathers died,[z] everything goes on just as it has from the beginning of creation.” 5 For in holding to this idea, it escapes their notice that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God. [aa] 6 Through these, the world of that time was destroyed by being flooded with water. [ab] 7 But by the same word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire—kept until the Day of Judgment and the destruction of ungodly people.[ac]
8 But don’t forget this one thing, loved ones, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. [ad] 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some consider slowness.[ae] Rather, He is being patient toward you—not wanting anyone to perish, but for all to come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.[af] On that day the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will melt and disintegrate, and the earth and everything done on it shall be exposed. 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what kind of people should you be? Live your lives in holiness and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God. In that day the heavens will be dissolved by fire, and the elements will melt in the intense heat. [ag] 13 But in keeping with His promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.[ah]
Final Advice
14 Therefore, loved ones, while you are looking for these things, make every effort to be found in shalom, spotless and blameless before Him. 15 Bear in mind that the patience of our Lord means salvation—just as our dearly loved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom given to him. 16 He speaks about these matters in all of his letters. Some things in them are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist (as they also do with the rest of the Scriptures)—to their own destruction.
17 Since you already know all this, loved ones, be on your guard so that you are not led astray by the error of the lawless and lose your sure footing. 18 Instead, keep growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Yeshua the Messiah. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity! Amen.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.