2 Peter 2:1–10

The Judgment of False Teachers

2But there were also false prophets ^kamong the people, just as there will be false teachers ^lamong you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought ^mthem, and will bring swift destruction on themselves. ²Many will follow their unrestrained ways, and the way of truth will be blasphemed because of them. ⁿ³They will exploit ^oyou in their greed ^pwith deceptive words. Their condemnation, ^qpronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.

⁴For if God didn’t spare ^rthe angels who sinned but threw them down into Tartarus ^stand delivered them to be kept in chains ^uof darkness until judgment; ^v5and if He didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, ^wa preacher of righteousness, and seven others, ^xywhen He brought a flood on the world of the ungodly; ⁶and if He reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah ^zto ashes and condemned them to ruin, ^amaking them an example to those who were going to be ungodly; ^bc7and if He rescued righteous Lot, ^ddistressed by the unrestrained behavior of the immoral ⁸(for as he lived among them, that righteous man tormented himself day by day with the lawless deeds he saw and heard ^e)— ⁹then the Lord knows how to rescue ^fthe godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, ^g10especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority. ^h

Bold, arrogant people! They do not tremble when they blaspheme the glorious ones;