2Pet 2
1
But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers
among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master,
the [One] having bought them, and bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
2
And many will follow after their debaucheries, because of whom the way of truth will
be blasphemed.
3
And by covetousness they will exploit you with fabricated words; for a long time their
judgment has not been idle, and their destruction will not sleep.
4
For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but rather confined [them] to
Tartarus, and delivered [them ]into chains of darkness, reserved for judgment;
5
and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, [the] eighth, a preacher
of righteousness, when He brought a flood upon the ungodly world;
6
and reducing the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, He condemned [them] to destruction,
having made [them] an example who were to be ungodly,
7
and He rescued righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the indecent conduct of lawless
[men]
8
(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, tormented his righteous
soul by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)-
9
[then] the Lord knows [how] to deliver the godly out of temptation and [how] to keep
the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,
10
and especially those who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise
authority. [They are ]bold, self-willed, illustrious persons, they do not tremble
at blaspheming,
11
whereas angels, being greater in might and in power, do not bring a slanderous judgment
against them before the Lord.
12
But these, as unreasoning natural animals, having been born for capture and destruction,
blaspheme at things which they are ignorant of, and shall be destroyed in their destruction,
13
receiving the wages of unrighteousness, counting as a pleasure to revel in the daytime,
[they are] spots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions while they feast with
you,
14
having eyes full of adultery and unable to cease from sin, enticing unstable souls,
having a heart having been trained in greediness, they are accursed children.
15
They have left behind the straight way and have gone astray, having followed after
the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
16
but he was rebuked for his own lawlessness: a dumb donkey speaking with the voice
of a man restrained the madness of the prophet.
17
These are waterless wells, clouds being driven by a storm, for whom the darkness of
the netherworld has been reserved forever.
18
For when they speak haughty [words] of emptiness, they entice through the lusts of
the flesh, through lewdness, those who are escaping from those who are living in error,
19
promising to them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by
whom anyone has been defeated, by this [one] also he has been enslaved.
20
For if having escaped from the corruptions of the world by the knowledge of the Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, yet by these, having become entangled they are defeated,
the latter end has become worse for them than the first.
21
For it was better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than knowing
it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.
22
But it has happened to them [according to] the [saying] of the true proverb: "A dog
returns to his own vomit,"and, "A sow, having washed, [returns ] to her wallowing
in the mire."