Chronological
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.
Greeting
1 Judah, a slave of Yeshua the Messiah and brother of Jacob,
To those who are called, who are loved in God the Father, and kept safe for Yeshua the Messiah:
2 May mercy and shalom and love be multiplied to you!
Contend for the Faith with the Ungodly
3 Loved ones, though very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I felt it necessary to write to you urging you to continue to contend for the faith that was once for all handed down to the kedoshim. 4 For certain people have secretly slipped in—those who from long ago have been marked out for this judgment. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into indecency and deny our only Master and Lord, Yeshua the Messiah.
5 Now I wish to remind you—though you have come to know all things—that the Lord,[a] once having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels—who did not keep their own position of authority but deserted their proper place—He has kept in everlasting shackles under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great Day. [b] 7 In the same way as these angels, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them—having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after a different sort of flesh—are displayed as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.[c]
8 Yet in the same way these people also, by their visionary dreaming, defile the flesh, reject the Lord’s authority,[d] and defame glorious beings. 9 But when Michael the archangel, disputing with the devil, was arguing about the body of Moses, he did not dare to render a judgment against him for slander, but said, “May the Lord rebuke you!” [e] 10 But these people slander whatever they do not understand. And whatever they do understand instinctively—like animals without reason—by these things they are destroyed.
11 Woe to them! For they went the way of Cain; they were consumed for pay in Balaam’s error; and in Korah’s rebellion they have been destroyed. [f] 12 These people are hidden rocky reefs at your love feasts—shamelessly feasting with you, tending only to themselves.[g] They are waterless clouds, carried along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, doubly dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame;[h] wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.[i]
14 It was also about these people that Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with myriads of His kedoshim, [j] 15 to execute judgment against all. He will convict all the ungodly for all their ungodly deeds that they have done in an ungodly way, and for all of the harsh things ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
16 These are bellyaching grumblers, following after their own desires. Their mouth speaks grandiose things, showing favoritism for the sake of gain. 17 But you, loved ones, ought to remember the words previously proclaimed by the emissaries of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah[k]— 18 how they kept telling you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following after their own ungodly desires.” [l] 19 These are the ones who cause divisions—worldly-minded, not having the Ruach
20 But you, loved ones, continue building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Ruach ha-Kodesh. 21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, eagerly waiting for the mercy of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah that leads to eternal life. 22 And have mercy on those who are wavering— 23 save them by snatching them out of the fire;[m] but on others have mercy with fear—hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
Hymn to God Our Savior
24 Now to the One who is able
to keep you from stumbling,
and to present you blameless
before the presence of His glory
with great joy,
25 to the only God our Savior,
through Yeshua the Messiah our Lord,
be glory, majesty, power, and authority,
before all time,[n] both now and forever. Amen.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.