10 and it will come -- the day of the Lord -- as a thief in the night, in which the heavens with a rushing noise will pass away, and the elements with burning heat be dissolved, and earth and the works in it shall be burnt up.
The heaven and the earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth did pass away, and the sea is not any more;
and the present heavens and the earth, by the same word are treasured, for fire being kept to a day of judgment and destruction of the impious men.
`lo, I do come as a thief; happy `is' he who is watching, and keeping his garments, that he may not walk naked, and they may see his unseemliness,' --
`Remember, then, how thou hast received, and heard, and be keeping, and reform: if, then, thou mayest not watch, I will come upon thee as a thief, and thou mayest not know what hour I will come upon thee.
And I saw a great white throne, and Him who is sitting upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven did flee away, and place was not found for them;
Mountains have shaken because of Him, And the hills have been melted; And lifted up `is' the earth at His presence, And the world and all dwelling in it.
Lift ye up to the heavens your eyes, And look attentively unto the earth beneath, For the heavens as smoke have vanished, And the earth as a garment weareth out, And its inhabitants as gnats do die, And My salvation is to the age, And My righteousness is not broken.
And `it is' the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, Who is striking against the land, and it melteth, And mourned have all the inhabitants in it, And come up as a flood hath all of it, And it hath sunk -- like the flood of Egypt.
to deliver up such a one to the Adversary for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
`Watch ye therefore, because ye have not known in what hour your Lord doth come; and this know, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief doth come, he had watched, and not suffered his house to be broken through;
Lo, I am sending to you Elijah the prophet, Before the coming of the day of Jehovah, The great and the fearful.
Lo, days are coming -- an affirmation of Jehovah, And come nigh hath the ploughman to the reaper, And the treader of grapes to the scatterer of seed, And the mountains have dropt juice, And all the hills do melt.
The sun is turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, Before the coming of the day of Jehovah, The great and the fearful.
And cry unto Jehovah, `Alas for the day! For near `is' a day of Jehovah, And as destruction from the mighty it cometh.
Utterly broken down hath been the land, Utterly broken hath been the land, Utterly moved hath been the land.
They -- They perish, and Thou remainest, And all of them as a garment become old, As clothing Thou changest them, And they are changed.
Hills, like wax, melted before Jehovah, Before the Lord of all the earth.
Multitudes, multitudes `are' in the valley of decision, For near `is' the day of Jehovah in the valley of decision.
messengers also, those who did not keep their own principality, but did leave their proper dwelling, to a judgment of a great day, in bonds everlasting, under darkness He hath kept,
according as also ye did acknowledge us in part, that your glory we are, even as also ye `are' ours, in the day of the Lord Jesus;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 2 Peter 3
Commentary on 2 Peter 3 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 3
2Pe 3:1-2
That the apostle might the better reach his end in writing this epistle, which is to make them steady and constant in a fiducial and practical remembrance of the doctrine of the gospel, he,
2Pe 3:3-7
To quicken and excite us to a serious minding and firm adhering to what God has revealed to us by the prophets and apostles, we are told that there will be scoffers, men who will make a mock of sin, and of salvation from it. God's way of saving sinners by Jesus Christ is what men will scoff at, and that in the last days, under the gospel. This indeed may seem very strange, that the New-Testament dispensation of the covenant of grace, which is spiritual and therefore more agreeable to the nature of God than the Old, should be ridiculed and reproached; but the spirituality and simplicity of New-Testament worship are directly contrary to the carnal mind of man, and this accounts for what the apostle seems here to hint at, namely, that scoffers shall be more numerous and more bold in the last days than ever before. Though in all ages those who were born and walked after the flesh persecuted, reviled, and reproached those who were born and did walk after the Spirit, yet in the last days there will be a great improvement in the art and impudence of bantering serious godliness, and those who firmly adhere to the circumspection and self-denial which the gospel prescribes. This is what is mentioned as a thing well known to all Christians, and therefore they ought to reckon upon it, that they may not be surprised and shaken, as if some strange thing happened unto them. Now to prevent the true Christian's being overcome, when attacked by these scoffers, we are told,
2Pe 3:8
The apostle comes in these words to instruct and establish Christians in the truth of the coming of the Lord, where we may clearly discern the tenderness and affection wherewith he speaks to them, calling them beloved; he had a compassionate concern and a love of good-will for the ungodly wretches who refused to believe divine revelation, but he has a peculiar respect for the true believers, and the remaining ignorance and weakness that the apprehends to be in them make him jealous, and put him on giving them a caution. Here we may observe,
2Pe 3:9-10
We are here told that the Lord is not slack-he does not delay beyond the appointed time; as God kept the time that he had appointed for the delivering of Israel out of Egypt, to a day (Ex. 12:41), so he will keep to the time appointed in coming to judge the world. What a difference is there between the account which God makes and that which men make! Good men are apt to think God stays beyond the appointed time, that is, the time which they have set for their own and the church's deliverance; but they set one time and God sets another, and he will not fail to keep the day which he has appointed. Ungodly men dare charge a culpable slackness upon God, as if he had slipped the time, and laid aside the thoughts of coming. But the apostle assures us,
And now who can but observe what a difference there will be between the first coming of Christ and the second! Yet that is called the great and dreadful day of the Lord, Mal. 4:5. How much more dreadful must this coming to judgment be! May we be so wise as to prepare for it, that it may not be a day of vengeance and destruction unto us. O! what will become of us, if we set our affections on this earth, and make it our portion, seeing all these things shall be burnt up? Look out therefore, and make sure of a happiness beyond this visible world, which must all be melted down.
2Pe 3:11-18
The apostle, having instructed them in the doctrine of Christ's second coming,