Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
2 Peter 3:13 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 13. 13Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse ends the paragraph with promise-shaped hope for new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells.
Read It With
- 2 Peter 3:8–13
Read 2 Peter 3:13 with 3:8–13. This verse ends the paragraph with promise-shaped hope for new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells. The complete unit establishes this movement: What appears slow is interpreted as divine patience aimed at repentance; the day remains unexpected, and its fiery cosmic imagery presses readers toward holy, godly lives while they await a new creation characterized by righteousness.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The response converts the delay problem into patience, repentance, holiness, expectation, and hope rather than an adjusted timetable. Within that movement, this verse ends the paragraph with promise-shaped hope for new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells.
Follow the Context
- One day and a thousand years are incomparable measures before the Lord, echoing Psalm 90.
- The Lord's apparent slowness is patience directed toward repentance rather than indifference.
- The day comes like a thief, with heavens, elements, earth, and works described through disputed fiery language.
- Because these things are subject to dissolution, the text asks what kind of holy and godly people readers should be.
- Readers look for and may hasten or earnestly desire the day of God.
- The promise directs hope toward new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“wherein dwelleth righteousness”
In plain language: Righteousness, not destruction itself, is the promised environment and ethical center.
Ends the paragraph with promise-shaped hope for new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells. The goal of future hope is a creation characterized by righteousness.
Why it matters: The wording carries interpretive or ethical risk that requires the full unit and its stated limits.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
New creation does not make this creation disposable, justify environmental neglect, or settle renewal versus replacement with scientific precision.
What Remains True
The goal of future hope is a creation characterized by righteousness.
How It Can Shape Life
- Practice justice and creation care as signs of the hoped-for order without claiming to build it by force.
Teach It Back
Explain 2 Peter 3:13's contribution to 2 Peter 3:8–13: Ends the paragraph with promise-shaped hope for new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells. Include what the surrounding verses add, the stated uncertainty, and what this verse does not authorize.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 2 Peter 3:8–13 — Patient Delay Leads to Holy Hope for a Righteous New CreationSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
Interpreters disagree about continuity, transformation, reconstruction, and replacement; canonical texts preserve both continuity and discontinuity.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: 2 Peter 3:8–13, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗Greek textual evidence
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition
Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos
Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010
Supports: Greek wording, clause relationships, repeated terms, and the base text used for original-language discussion.
Exact location: SBLGNT official text file 2Pet.txt, 3:8–13
Open the 2 Peter Greek text file ↗Translation and textual notes
NET Bible — 2 Peter with translators' and textual notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2005–2026 online edition
Supports: Verse-level Greek, syntax, KJV-era wording, textual variants, and interpretive alternatives.
Exact location: NET Bible 2 Peter PDF, 3:8–13 translation and attached translator, study, and textual notes
Open the official NET 2 Peter PDF ↗