²that you not be easily shaken from your composure, nor be troubled either by a spirit or by a message or by a letter alleged to be from us^a, to the effect that the day of the Lord has arrived. ³Do not let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, ⁴who opposes and who exalts himself over every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits down in the temple of God, proclaiming that he himself is God.

⁵Do you not remember that while^b we were still with you, we were saying these things to you? ⁶And you know that which restrains him now, so that he will be revealed in his own time. ⁷For the mystery of lawlessness is at work already; only the one who now restrains^c will do so until he is out of the way,^b ⁸and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of his mouth, and wipe out by the appearance of his coming, ⁹whose coming is in accordance with the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders,

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Footnotes

aLiterally “as if by us”
bHere “while” is supplied as a component of the participle (“were”) which is understood as temporal
cOr “restrains it” (referring to the “mystery of lawlessness”; or “restrains him” (referring to the “man of lawlessness” in v. 3)
bLiterally “out of the midst”