2 Peter 3:7 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
2 Peter 3:7
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.
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
2 Peter 3:10 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 sha…
Isaiah 51:6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old…
2 Peter 3:12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt…
Revelation 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
2 Thessalonians 1:7-8 And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
2 Peter 2:9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
Matthew 25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 2 Peter 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 ap…
(Compare Job 28:5, end).
which are now--"the postdiluvian visible world." In contrast to "that then was," Pe2 3:6.
the same--Other oldest manuscripts read, "His" (God's).
kept in store--Greek, "treasured up."
reserved--"kept." It is only God's constantly watchful providence which holds together the present state of things till His time for ending it.
Adam Clarke on 2 Peter 3:7
But the heavens and the earth, which are now - The present earth and its atmosphere, which are liable to the same destruction, because the same means still exist, (for there is still water enough to drown the earth, and there is iniquity enough to induce God to destroy it and its inhabitants), are nevertheless kept in store, τεθησαυρισμενοι, treasured up, kept in God's storehouse, to be destroyed, not by water, but by fire at the day of judgment.
From all this it appears that those mockers affected to be ignorant of the Mosaic account of the formation of the earth, and of its destruction by the waters of the deluge; and indeed this is implied in their stating that all things continued as the…
But the heavens and the earth which are now,.... In being, in distinction from, and opposition to the heavens that were of old, and the earth standing in and out of the water, and the world that then was when the waters of the flood overflowed it:
by the same word are kept in store; that is, by the word of God, as in 2 Peter 3:5; and the Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions read, "by his word"; by the same word that the heavens and the earth were made of old, or in the beginning, are they kept, preserved, and upheld in their being; or "are treasured up"; the heavens and the earth are a rich treasure, they are full of the riches God, as the God of nature and providence; and they are kept wi…
The Church Fathers
But the heavens and the earth which are now, etc. Therefore it is clear from the view of blessed Peter that the earth and those heavens which perished in the flood, and were restored after the flood, are affirmed to be destroyed by final fire.
Then further concerning Him, that He alone is powerful, both to institute judgment on the deeds performed in life, and on the ignorance of the Deity [displayed by men], I can adduce witnesses from your own ranks; and first Sophocles, who speaks as follows: "That time of times shall come, shall surely come, When from the golden ether down shall fall Fire's teeming treasure, and in burning flames All things of earth and heaven shall be consumed; And then, when all creation is dissolved, The sea's last wave shall die upon the shore, The bald earth stript of trees, the burning air No winged thing upon its breast shall bear. There are two roads to Hades, well we know; By this the righteous, and by that the bad, On to their separate fates shall tend; and He, Who all things had destroyed, shall all things save."...
Many people think that these words refer to changes and revolutions which will take place here on earth. They say that heaven and earth were once both water and that they were formed out of water by the Word of God. What had been the world up to then perished in water, and what are now the heavens and the earth are based on the Word but are being kept for destruction by fire. By these words the preacher is saying that what we now see before us will be consumed by fire. For he says that the day of judgment will come as a thief in the night, and that on that day the heavens will implode, and the elements will be burnt by the resulting fire. Afterward there will be new heavens and a new earth, in which the righteous will possess righteousness and the promises of God in their own dwellings. However, it must not be forgotten that this letter is counterfeit, and although it may be published, it does not form part of the earliest list of recieved writings.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Geology · 22:16; — 22:16;
Judgment · 6:2;9:27;10:27; — 6:2;9:27;10:27;
Judgment, The · Called the: Day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men — Called the: Day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men
Water · The world not to be again destroyed by — The world not to be again destroyed by
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
2 Peter 3:5-8
5. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
5. Nam hoe nesciunt volentes. qu?d caeli jam olim fuerint, et terra ex aqua, et per aquam consistens, Dei sermone;
6. Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
6. Per quae mundus qui tunc erat, aqua inundatus periit:
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.
7. Qui autem nunc sunt coeli et terra, ejusdem sermone repositi sunt, et servantur igni in diem judicii et perditionis i…
