Passage

2 Peter 3.8

Book: 2 Peter · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

6. by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7. but the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

8. But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is longsuffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (2 Peter 3:6-10, ASV)

WEB

6. by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. 7. But the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

8. But don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. (2 Peter 3:6-10, WEB)

KJV

6. Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7. But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

8. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (2 Peter 3:6-10, KJV)

YLT

6. through which the then world, by water having been deluged, was destroyed; 7. 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.

8. And this one thing let not be unobserved by you, beloved, that one day with the Lord [is] as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day;

the Lord is not slow in regard to the promise, as certain count slowness, but is long-suffering to us, not counselling any to be lost but all to pass on to reformation, 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. (2 Peter 3:6-10, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

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

The verse asks the reader not to let one fact escape notice: with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The statement is symmetrical, and both directions matter. Read only in the first direction it becomes a formula for converting biblical time spans, which is not its function here. Its function is to answer the charge of slowness by denying that God's relation to duration is the same as the creature's, which removes the basis for calling a delay long. Verse 9 then supplies the positive reason for the interval, so that verse 8 clears the objection and verse 9 explains the purpose.

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.

G1520 - heis, heis, Strong's G1520
G2962 - kyrios, kyrios, Strong's G2962

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Passages:

Psalms 90.2

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.