Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 2 Peter 3:5

"For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of water and amidst water, by the word of God;" — 2 Peter 3:5 (ASV)

But they “deliberately [lit., willingly; GK 2527] forget” the great Flood, when God intervened in history by destroying the world. What they forget is not only the Flood but also God’s prior activity by his word—the existence of the heavens and the watery formation of the earth (Genesis 1:2–10). It seems unlikely that Peter is seeking to affirm that water was the basic material of creation. He does not use the verb “create” but says that the earth “was formed [GK 5319] out of water and with water.” In Genesis the sky separates the waters from the waters by the word of God, and the land appears out of the water by the same word. At the beginning of v.6, the phrase “by these waters” (lit., “through these”) probably refers to both water and the word as the agents used by God for destroying the former world (v.6), just as word and fire will be the destructive agents in the future (v.7). “The world of that time” obviously means that the inhabitants of the earth were destroyed (the world itself was not destroyed).