2 Peter 2

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Deliverance from False Prophets

¹Now there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.

¹But there were also false prophets among the people, as also among you there will be false teachers who will stealthily introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master having bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

²Many will follow in their depravity, and because of them the way of truth will be defamed.

²And many will follow after their sensuality, through whom the way of the truth will be blasphemed.

³In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction does not sleep.

³And through covetousness they will exploit you with fabricated words, for whom the judgment of long ago is not idle, and their destruction does not slumber.

⁴For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell,^a placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment;

⁴For if God did not spare the angels having sinned, but having cast them down to Tartarus in chains of gloomy darkness, He delivered them, being kept for judgment;

⁵if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;

⁵and He did not spare the ancient world, but He preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, one of eight, having brought the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

⁶if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction,^a reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly;^b

⁶and He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, having reduced them to ashes, having set an example of what is coming on the ungodly;

⁷and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless

⁷and He delivered righteous Lot, being distressed by the conduct in sensuality of the lawless

⁸(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—

⁸(for that righteous man dwelling, among them, day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul in seeing and hearing their lawless works)—

⁹if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

⁹then the Lord knows to deliver the devout out of trial and to keep the unrighteous being punished unto the day of judgment,

¹⁰Such punishment is specially reserved for those who indulge the corrupt desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and self-willed, they are unafraid to slander glorious beings.^a

¹⁰and especially those going after the flesh in the passion of defilement and despising authority. Bold, self-willed, they are not afraid of blaspheming glorious ones,

¹¹Yet not even angels, though greater in strength and power, dare to bring such slanderous charges against them before the Lord.

¹¹whereas angels, being greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a blasphemous judgment before the Lord.

¹²These men are like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be captured and destroyed. They blaspheme in matters they do not understand, and like such creatures, they too will be destroyed.

¹²But these, as irrational animals having been born naturally for capture and destruction, blaspheming in what they are ignorant of, in their destruction also will be destroyed,

¹³The harm they will suffer is the wages of their wickedness.

They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deception as they feast with you.

¹³suffering harm as the wage of unrighteousness; esteeming luxury in daytime as pleasure; spots and blemishes, luxuriating in their deceptions, feasting with you;

¹⁴Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed.

¹⁴having eyes full of adultery, and unceasing from sin; enticing unstable souls; having a heart having been trained in covetousness—children of a curse!

¹⁵They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor,^a who loved the wages of wickedness.

¹⁵Having forsaken the straight way, they went astray, having followed after the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wage of unrighteousness.

¹⁶But he was rebuked for his transgression by a donkey, otherwise without speech, that spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

¹⁶But he had reproof for his own violation of the law by a mute donkey; having spoken in a man’s voice, it restrained the madness of the prophet.

¹⁷These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.

¹⁷These are springs without waters and mists being driven by a storm, for whom the gloom of darkness has been kept.

¹⁸With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error.

¹⁸For speaking great swelling words of vanity, they entice in the passions of the flesh to sensuality those barely escaping from those conducting themselves in error,

¹⁹They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.

¹⁹promising to them freedom, themselves being slaves of corruption. For by what anyone has been subdued, by that also he is enslaved.

²⁰If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,^a only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first.

²⁰For if, having escaped from the pollutions of the world in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, now again having been entangled in these they are subdued, the last state has become worse to them than the first.

²¹It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them.

²¹For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to have turned from the holy commandment having been delivered to them.

²²Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,”^a and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

²²The thing of the true proverb has happened to them: “A dog having returned to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, having washed, to her rolling place in the mire.”