2 Peter 2:4–22

⁴For if God did not spare ^uangels when they sinned, but ^vcast them into hell¹ and committed them to chains² of gloomy darkness ^wto be kept until the judgment; ⁵if he did not spare the ancient world, but ^xpreserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought ^ya flood upon the world of the ungodly; ⁶if by ^zturning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, ^amaking them an example of ^bwhat is going to happen to the ungodly;^{3 7}and ^cif he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked ⁸(for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, ^dhe was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); ⁹then ^ethe Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials,⁴ and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, ¹⁰and especially ^fthose who indulge⁵ in the lust of defiling passion and ^gdespise authority.

Bold and willful, they do not tremble ^gas they blaspheme the glorious ones, ^11hwhereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. ¹²ⁱBut these, like irrational animals, ^jcreatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, ¹³suffering wrong as ^kthe wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure ^lto revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions,⁶ while ^mthey feast with you. ¹⁴They have eyes full of adultery,^{7 n}insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts ^otrained in greed. ^pAccursed children! ¹⁵Forsaking the right way, ^qthey have gone astray. They have followed ^rthe way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved ^sgain from wrongdoing, ¹⁶but was rebuked for his own transgression; ^ta speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

^17uThese are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. ^vFor them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. ¹⁸For, ^wspeaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely ^xescaping from those who live in error. ¹⁹They promise them ^yfreedom, ^zbut they themselves are slaves⁸ of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. ²⁰For if, ^aafter they have escaped the defilements of the world ^bthrough the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, ^cthe last state has become worse for them than the first. ²¹For ^dit would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from ^ethe holy commandment delivered to them. ²²What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The ^fdog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”