2 Peter 2:10–22

¹⁰and especially ^fthose who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. ^gThey are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of ³dignitaries, ¹¹whereas ^hangels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.

Depravity of False Teachers

¹²But these, ⁱlike natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, ^13jand will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure ^kto ⁴carouse in the daytime. ^lThey are spots and blemishes, ⁵carousing in their own deceptions while ^mthey feast with you, ¹⁴having eyes full of ⁶adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. ⁿThey have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. ¹⁵They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of ^oBalaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; ¹⁶but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.

^17pThese are wells without water, ⁷clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness ⁸forever.

Deceptions of False Teachers

¹⁸For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who ⁹have actually escaped from those who live in error. ¹⁹While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of ¹corruption; ^qfor by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into ²bondage. ²⁰For if, after they ^rhave escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are ^sagain entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. ²¹For ^tit would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. ²²But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: ^u“A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”