But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.
Parallel translations
- WEB 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.
- KJV 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.
- BSB Beloved, do not let this one thing escape your notice: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
- NKJV But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
- NASB But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Believers should not forget that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. It matters because God's sense of time differs from ours, so apparent delay is no failure.
Overview
Echoing Psalm 90:4, Peter reminds readers that God is not bound by human reckoning of time. What seems like delay to us is nothing to the eternal God. This perspective answers the scoffers' impatience and steadies believers waiting for Christ's return.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Ps 90:4For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night.
- Rom 11:25For I don’t desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won’t be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in,
- 1 Cor 12:1Now concerning spiritual things, brothers, I don’t want you to be ignorant.
- 1 Cor 10:1Now I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
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Christ at the center
The sure word of the prophets and the promise of the coming day of the Lord anchor the believer in the knowledge of 'our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.'
How 2 Peter 3:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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