2 Peter 2:1-22
2 However, there also came to be false prophets among the people, as there will also be false teachers among YOU.+ These very ones will quietly bring in destructive sects* and will disown even the owner that bought them,+ bringing speedy destruction upon themselves.
2 Furthermore, many will follow+ their acts of loose conduct,*+ and on account of these the way of the truth will be spoken of abusively.+
3 Also, with covetousness they will exploit YOU with counterfeit words.+ But as for them, the judgment from of old+ is not moving slowly, and the destruction of them is not slumbering.+
4 Certainly if God did not hold back from punishing the angels+ that sinned, but, by throwing them into Tarʹta·rus,*+ delivered them to pits of dense darkness to be reserved for judgment;+
5 and he did not hold back from punishing an ancient* world,+ but kept Noah, a preacher of righteousness,+ safe with seven others+ when he brought a deluge*+ upon a world of ungodly people;
6 and by reducing the cities Sodʹom and Go·morʹrah to ashes he condemned them,+ setting a pattern for ungodly persons* of things to come;+
7 and he delivered righteous Lot,+ who was greatly distressed by the indulgence of the law-defying people in loose conduct*+—
8 for that righteous man by what he saw and heard while dwelling among them from day to day was tormenting his righteous soul by reason of their lawless deeds—
9 Jehovah* knows how to deliver people of godly devotion out of trial,+ but to reserve unrighteous people for the day of judgment to be cut off,*+
10 especially, however, those who go on after flesh with the desire to defile [it]+ and who look down* on lordship.+
Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble at glorious ones* but speak abusively,+
11 whereas angels, although they are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them an accusation in abusive terms,+ [not doing so] out of respect for Jehovah.*+
12 But these [men], like unreasoning animals born naturally to be caught and destroyed, will, in the things of which they are ignorant and speak abusively,+ even suffer destruction in their own [course of] destruction,
13 wronging themselves+ as a reward for wrongdoing.+
They consider luxurious living in the daytime a pleasure.+ They are spots and blemishes, indulging with unrestrained delight in their deceptive teachings* while feasting together with YOU.+
14 They have eyes full of adultery*+ and unable to desist from sin,+ and they entice* unsteady souls. They have a heart trained in covetousness.+ They are accursed children.+
15 Abandoning the straight path, they have been misled. They have followed the path of Baʹlaam,+ [the son] of Beʹor, who loved the reward of wrongdoing,+
16 but got a reproof for his own violation of what was right.*+ A voiceless beast of burden, making utterance with the voice of a man,+ hindered the prophet’s mad course.+
17 These are fountains without water,+ and mists driven by a violent storm, and for them the blackness of darkness has been reserved.+
18 For they utter swelling expressions of no profit, and by the desires of the flesh+ and by loose habits they entice+ those who are just escaping+ from people who conduct themselves in error.
19 While they are promising them freedom,+ they themselves are existing as slaves of corruption.+ For whoever is overcome by another is enslaved by this one.*+
20 Certainly if, after having escaped from the defilements of the world+ by an accurate knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they get involved* again with these very things and are overcome,+ the final conditions have become worse for them than the first.+
21 For it would have been better for them not to have accurately known the path of righteousness+ than after knowing it accurately to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them.+
22 The saying of the true proverb has happened to them: “The dog+ has returned to its own vomit, and the sow that was bathed to rolling in the mire.”+
Footnotes
^ Or, “heresies.” Gr., hai·reʹseis; Lat., secʹtas.
^ For a discussion of “Tartarus,” see App 4D.
^ Or, “flood; cataclysm.” Gr., ka·ta·kly·smonʹ; Lat., di·luʹvi·um.
^ Lit., “archaic.” Gr., ar·khaiʹou.
^ Lit., “irreverential (ones).”
^ “Loose conduct.” Lit., “lewdness of conduct.”
^ See App 1D.
^ Lit., “minding down.”
^ Lit., “at glories.”
^ “For Jehovah,” J7,8,13,16-18,22-24; אBC(Gr.), Ky·riʹoi; AVgSyh omit. See App 1D.
^ Or, “in their dissipations.”
^ Lit., “baiting on.”
^ Lit., “full of adulteress.”
^ Lit., “exceeding of law.”
^ Or, “is overcome by something is enslaved by the same.”
^ Lit., “having been inwoven.”
