This second letter, beloved, I now write to you; in them both I stir up your sincere mind with a reminder,

So that you would remember the  ¹words spoken before by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior preached by your apostles;

Knowing this first, that in the  ¹last of days  ²mockers will come with mocking, going on according to their own lusts

And saying, Where is the  ¹promise of His  ²coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue in this way from the beginning of creation.

For  ¹this escapes them by their own choosing, that by the  ²word of God the  ³heavens were of old and the  ³earth was  ⁴compacted out of water and through water,

Through  ¹which the  ²world  ³then, being  ⁴flooded with water,  ⁵perished.

But the heavens and the earth  ¹now, by the  ²same word, have been stored up for  ³fire, being kept unto the day of  ⁴judgment and  ⁵destruction of  ⁶ungodly men.

But do not let this one thing  ¹escape you, beloved, that with the Lord  ²one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day.

The Lord  ¹does not delay regarding the promise, as  ²some count  ³delay, but is  ⁴long-suffering toward you, not intending that any  ⁵perish but that  ⁶all advance to  ⁷repentance.

But the  ¹day of the Lord will  ²come as a thief, in  ³which the  ⁴heavens will pass away with a  ⁵roar, and the  ⁶elements, burning with intense heat, will be  ⁷dissolved, and the earth and the  ⁸works in it will be  ⁷burned up.

Since  ¹all these things  ²are to be thus dissolved, what kind of persons ought you to be  ³in holy manner of life and godliness,

 ¹Expecting and hastening the  ²coming of the  ³day of God, on account of  ⁴which the heavens, being on fire, will be dissolved, and the elements, burning with intense heat, are to be melted away?

But according to His  ¹promise we are expecting  ²new heavens and a new earth, in which  ³righteousness  ⁴dwells.

Therefore, beloved, since you expect these things, be diligent to be  ¹found by Him in peace  ²without spot and without blemish;

And  ¹count the  ²long-suffering of our Lord to be  ³salvation, even as  ⁴also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you,

As also in  ¹all his letters, speaking in them concerning  ²these things, in which some things are hard to understand, which the unlearned and unstable  ³twist, as also the  ²rest of the Scriptures, to their own  ⁴destruction.

You therefore, beloved, since you know these things beforehand,  ¹be on your guard lest being  ²carried away by the error of the  ³lawless, you  ⁴fall from your own steadfastness.

But  ¹grow in the  ²grace and  ³knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  ⁴To Him be the glory both now and unto the day of eternity. Amen.

Then He brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east, but it was shut.

And Jehovah said to me, This gate will remain shut; it will not be opened, nor will any man enter through it, for Jehovah the God of Israel has entered through it; therefore it will remain shut.

As for the  ¹Prince, He will sit in it as a prince to eat food before Jehovah; He will enter through the porch of the gate and go out the same way.

Then He brought me through the north gate to the front of the house; and I looked, and just then the glory of Jehovah filled the  ¹house of Jehovah, and I fell upon my face.

And Jehovah said to me, Son of man, pay attention, and look with your eyes, and listen with your ears to all that I say to you concerning all the statutes of the house of Jehovah and all its laws; and pay attention to the entrance of the house, with every exit of the sanctuary.

And you shall say to the rebellious, to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Enough, O house of Israel, of all your abominations,

Inasmuch as you have brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary, to profane it, My house, when you presented My bread, the fat and the blood. And in addition to all your abominations,  ¹you broke My covenant.

And you have not kept the charge of My holy things, but you have set your own keepers of My charge in My sanctuary.

Thus says the Lord Jehovah, No foreigner,  ¹uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, of any of the foreigners who are among the children of Israel shall enter into My sanctuary.

But the Levites  ¹who went far from Me, when Israel went astray, who went astray from Me after their idols, shall bear their iniquity.

Yet they shall minister in My sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the house and ministering in the house. They shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them.

Because they ministered to them before their idols and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I have sworn concerning them, declares the Lord Jehovah, that they shall bear their iniquity.

And they shall not come near to Me to serve Me as a priest, nor come near to any of My holy things, to the things that are most holy; but they shall bear their disgrace and their abominations which they have committed.

Yet I will appoint them keepers of the charge of the house, for all its service and for all that will be done in it.

But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept the charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near to Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to present to Me the  ¹fat and the  ¹blood, declares the Lord Jehovah,

It is they who will enter My sanctuary, and it is they who will come near to My table to minister to Me, and they will keep My charge.

And when they enter the gates of the inner court they shall be clothed with  ¹linen garments, and no wool will come upon them while they minister in the gates of the inner court and inside it.

They shall have linen turbans on their heads and have linen trousers over their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything that causes sweat.

And when they go out into the outer court, into the outer court to the people, they shall  ¹take off their garments with which they minister and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments so that they do not sanctify the people with their garments.

They shall neither  ¹shave their heads, nor let their locks grow long; they shall only trim the hair of their heads.

And none of the priests shall drink  ¹wine when they enter the inner court.

And they shall not  ¹take as their wives a widow or a divorced woman, but rather they shall take virgins of the seed of the house of Israel or a widow who is the widow of a priest.

And they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the profane and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.

And in a dispute they shall stand as a judge; according to My ordinances they shall give judgment concerning it. They shall also keep My laws and My statutes in all My appointed  ¹feasts, and they shall sanctify My  ²Sabbaths.

And they shall not go to any  ¹dead person to defile themselves. Only for a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, a brother, or a sister who has had no husband may they defile themselves.

And after he has been cleansed, they shall number  ¹seven days for him.

And on the day he enters the sanctuary, into the inner court to minister in the sanctuary, he shall present his  ¹sin offering, declares the Lord Jehovah.

And they shall have an inheritance:  ¹I am their inheritance. And you shall not give them a possession in Israel —  ¹I am their possession.

They shall  ¹eat the meal offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering; and every devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs.

And the first of all the firstfruits of everything, and every heave offering of everything, of all your heave offerings, shall be the priests'. You shall also give the priests the first of your dough to cause a blessing to rest on your house.

The priests shall not eat of anything that dies of itself or is torn by beasts, either a bird or an animal.

Moreover when you divide the land for inheritance by lot, you shall offer a heave offering of land to Jehovah, a holy portion of the land; its length shall be twenty-five thousand reeds long, and its width  ¹twenty thousand reeds; it shall be holy within all its surrounding border.

From this there will be reserved for the holy place a five hundred reed by five hundred reed square all around, and fifty cubits for its surrounding suburbs.

You shall also measure from this measurement a length of twenty-five thousand reeds and a width of ten thousand reeds, and in it will be the sanctuary, the most holy place.

It is a holy portion of the land; it shall be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who come near to minister to Jehovah, and it shall be a place for their houses as well as a holy area for the sanctuary.

And an area twenty-five thousand reeds in length and ten thousand reeds in width shall be for the Levites, the ministers of the house, for their own possession, for  ¹cities to live in.

And alongside the holy heave offering you shall grant a possession for the city, five thousand reeds in width and twenty-five thousand reeds in length; it shall be for the whole house of Israel.

And you shall set aside for the prince on both sides of the holy heave offering and of the city's possession, adjacent to the holy heave offering and adjacent to the city's possession, on the west side toward the west and on the east side toward the east. Thus the total length corresponds to one of the tribal portions from the western border to the eastern border.

In the land it shall be his possession in Israel. And My princes shall no longer oppress My people, but they shall give the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.