3:12a

anticipate: The literal meaning of the Greek is “waiting, expecting.”

hasten: The Greek word that Berean Standard Bible translates as hasten could mean:

(1) “hastening.” Most versions follow this interpretation. For example:

Do your best to make it come soon (Good News Translation)
-or-
Work to hasten it on (New English Bible)

(Berean Standard Bible, Good News Translation, New English Bible)

Christians can hasten the day when Christ will return by prayer and repentance. This is the most usual meaning of the verb.

(2) Or it could mean “be eager, desire earnestly.” In this case it emphasizes the verb “look forward to,” and both verbs together mean “eagerly looking forward to.” There is only one grammatical object in the sentence (“the coming of the day of God”). This supports the interpretation that the second verb is emphasizing the first. For example:

while you wait and long for the Day of God (The Jerusalem Bible)

It is recommended that you follow the first interpretation (1).

the coming of the day of God: This refers to the same day as “the Day of the Lord” in verse 10. It is the day on which God has decided that Christ will return. You could translate it in this way:

as you look forward to Christ returning on the day that God has decided.

3:12b–c

The description of the end of the world in verse 12 is very similar to verse 10, so see notes on 3:10.

© 2000 by SIL International®

Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.