3 knowing this first, that there shall come at {the} close of the days mockers with mocking, walking according to their own lusts,

4 and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for from the time the fathers fell asleep all things remain thus from {the} beginning of {the} creation.

5 For this is hidden from them through their own wilfulness, that heavens were of old, and an earth, having its subsistence out of water and in water, by the word of God,

6 through which {waters} the then world, deluged with water, perished.

7 But the present heavens and the earth by his word are laid up in store, kept for fire unto a day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.