Peter's Second Letter, Chapter 2
{2:1} But there also arose false prophets among the people, as among
you also there will be false teachers, who will secretly bring in
destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them,
bringing on themselves swift destruction. {2:2} Many will follow their
[1>]immoral[<1] ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be
maligned. {2:3} In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive
words: whose sentence now from of old doesn't linger, and their
destruction will not slumber. {2:4} For if God didn't spare angels
when they sinned, but cast them down to [2>]Tartarus[<2], and
committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved to judgment; {2:5}
and didn't spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven
others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the
world of the ungodly; {2:6} and turning the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them
an example to those who would live ungodly; {2:7} and delivered
righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the
wicked {2:8} (for that righteous man dwelling among them, was
tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and
hearing lawless deeds): {2:9} the Lord knows how to deliver the godly
out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the
day of judgment; {2:10} but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in
the lust of defilement, and despise authority. Daring, self-willed,
they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries; {2:11} whereas
angels, though greater in might and power, don't bring a railing
judgment against them before the Lord. {2:12} But these, as
unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed,
speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant, will in their
destroying surely be destroyed, {2:13} receiving the wages of
unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the
day-time, spots and blemishes, reveling in their deceit while they
feast with you; {2:14} having eyes full of adultery, and who can't
cease from sin; enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in
greed; children of cursing; {2:15} forsaking the right way, they went
astray, having followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved
the wages of wrong-doing; {2:16} but he was rebuked for his own
disobedience. A mute donkey spoke with man's voice and stopped the
madness of the prophet. {2:17} These are wells without water, clouds
driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness has been
reserved forever. {2:18} For, uttering great swelling words of
emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness,
those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error; {2:19}
promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of
corruption; for by whom a man is overcome, by the same is he also
brought into bondage.
{2:20} For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world
through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are
again entangled therein and overcome, the last state has become worse
with them than the first. {2:21} For it would be better for them not
to have known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to
turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. {2:22} But it
has happened to them according to the true proverb, "The dog turns to
his own vomit again," and "the sow that had washed to wallowing in the
mire."
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Footnotes:
[1] {2:2} TR reads "destructive" instead of "immoral"
[2] {2:4} Tartarus is another name for Hell
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