Passage

2 Peter 2.5

Book: 2 Peter · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

3. And in covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose sentence now from of old lingereth not, and their destruction slumbereth not. 4. For if God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

5. and spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;

and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, having made them an example unto those that should live ungodly; 7. and delivered righteous Lot, sore distressed by the lascivious life of the wicked (2 Peter 2:3-7, ASV)

WEB

3. In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn’t linger, and their destruction will not slumber. 4. For if God didn’t spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;

5. and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;

and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly; 7. and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked (2 Peter 2:3-7, WEB)

KJV

3. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. 4. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

5. And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; 7. And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (2 Peter 2:3-7, KJV)

YLT

3. and in covetousness, with moulded words, of you they shall make merchandise, whose judgment of old is not idle, and their destruction doth not slumber. 4. For if God messengers who sinned did not spare, but with chains of thick gloom, having cast [them] down to Tartarus, did deliver [them] to judgment, having been reserved,

5. and the old world did not spare, but the eighth person, Noah, of righteousness a preacher, did keep, a flood on the world of the impious having brought,

and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah having turned to ashes, with an overthrow did condemn, an example to those about to be impious having set [them]; 7. and righteous Lot, worn down by the conduct in lasciviousness of the impious, He did rescue, (2 Peter 2:3-7, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Simon Peter, writing as an apostle and eyewitness (1:1, 1:16), aware that his death is near (1:14)
Audience: Believers addressed as having received a faith of the same kind as the apostles' (1:1); 3:1 calls this the second letter to them, pointing to the same congregations as 1 Peter in Asia Minor
Location: Traditionally Rome, in the period of Peter's final imprisonment
Time period: c. AD 64-68 on the traditional attribution; the letter is written against teachers who had entered the churches denying the Lord's return and using freedom as cover for licence (2:1-3, 3:3-4)

Theological reading

Noah is described as the eighth person and a preacher of righteousness, and the flood is presented as a judgment on a world of the ungodly from which a small number were preserved. The verse contributes the second element in the chapter's argument that God's judgment is real and his preservation of the righteous is simultaneous with it. The description of Noah as a preacher is not narrated in Genesis and reflects a wider tradition, which is worth noting rather than obscuring; the letter's argument does not depend on it, resting instead on the preservation itself.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G1343 - dikaiosyne, dikaiosyne, Strong's G1343
G2889 - kosmos, kosmos, Strong's G2889

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Flood Genocide Objection Defeater

Concepts:

People:

Michael Heiser, via 2 Peter 2.4-5

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.