1:1Simon Peter, a servant andan apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faithwith us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: 1:2Grace and peace bemultiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, 1:3According as his divinepower hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life andgodliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory andvirtue: 1:4Whereby are givenunto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might bepartakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is inthe world through lust. 1:5And beside this, giving alldiligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 1:6And to knowledge temperance; andto temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 1:7And to godliness brotherlykindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 1:8For if these things be in you, andabound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren norunfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1:9But he that lacketh these thingsis blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purgedfrom his old sins. 1:10Wherefore the rather, brethren,give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do thesethings, ye shall never fall: 1:11For so an entrance shall beministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lordand Saviour Jesus Christ.
1:12Wherefore I will notbe negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though yeknow them, and be established in the present truth. 1:13Yea, I think it meet, as long asI am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you inremembrance; 1:14Knowing thatshortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord JesusChrist hath shewed me. 1:15Moreover I will endeavour that yemay be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. 1:16For we have not followedcunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and comingof our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 1:17For he received from God theFather honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from theexcellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 1:18And this voice which camefrom heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. 1:19We have also a more sure word ofprophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light thatshineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise inyour hearts: 1:20Knowing thisfirst, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 1:21For the prophecy came notin old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as theywere moved by the Holy Ghost.
2:1But there were falseprophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachersamong you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying theLord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2:2And many shall followtheir pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evilspoken of. 2:3And throughcovetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whosejudgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumberethnot. 2:4For if God spared notthe angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and deliveredthem into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 2:5And spared not the old world, butsaved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringingin the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 2:6And turning the cities of Sodomand Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, makingthem an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; 2:7And delivered just Lot, vexed withthe filthy conversation of the wicked: 2:8(For that righteous man dwellingamong them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul fromday to day with their unlawful deeds;) 2:9The Lord knoweth how to deliverthe godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day ofjudgment to be punished: 2:10But chiefly them that walk afterthe flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuousare they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil ofdignities. 2:11Whereasangels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusationagainst them before the Lord. 2:12But these, as natural brutebeasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that theyunderstand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; 2:13And shall receive the reward ofunrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in thedaytime. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves withtheir own deceivings while they feast with you; 2:14Having eyes full of adultery, andthat cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they haveexercised with covetous practices; cursed children: 2:15Which have forsaken the rightway, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son ofBosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 2:16But was rebuked for his iniquity:the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of theprophet. 2:17These are wellswithout water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist ofdarkness is reserved for ever. 2:18For when they speak greatswelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of theflesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped fromthem who live in error. 2:19While they promise them liberty,they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man isovercome, of the same is he brought in bondage. 2:20For if after they have escapedthe pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and SaviourJesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latterend is worse with them than the beginning. 2:21For it had been better for themnot to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have knownit, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 2:22But it is happened unto themaccording to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomitagain; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
3:1This second epistle,beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pureminds by way of remembrance: 3:2That ye may be mindful of thewords which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of thecommandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: 3:3Knowing this first, that thereshall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 3:4And saying, Where is thepromise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all thingscontinue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 3:5For this they willingly areignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and theearth standing out of the water and in the water: 3:6Whereby the world that then was,being overflowed with water, perished: 3:7But the heavens and the earth,which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fireagainst the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 3:8But, beloved, be not ignorant ofthis one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years,and a thousand years as one day. 3:9The Lord is not slack concerninghis promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward,not willing that any should perish, but that all should come torepentance. 3:10But the dayof the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavensshall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt withfervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall beburned up. 3:11Seeingthen that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner ofpersons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 3:12Looking for and hastingunto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shallbe dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 3:13Nevertheless we, according to hispromise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwellethrighteousness. 3:14Wherefore,beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may befound of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. 3:15And account that thelongsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brotherPaul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; 3:16As also in all hisepistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hardto be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, asthey do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. 3:17Ye therefore, beloved,seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being ledaway with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. 3:18But grow in grace, andin the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To himbe glory both now and for ever. Amen. Authorized King James Version, originally published by Oxford Press, Oxford, 1769