2 Peter 2:1–22

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; ¹¹however, angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring a slanderous charge against them before the Lord. ⁱ¹²But these people, like irrational animals—creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed—speak blasphemies about things they don’t understand, and in their destruction they too will be destroyed, ¹³suffering harm as the payment for unrighteousness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, delighting in their deceptions ^jas they feast with you. ¹⁴They have eyes full of adultery ^kand are always looking for sin. They seduce unstable people and have hearts trained in greed. Children under a curse! ^l15They have gone astray by abandoning the straight path ^mand have followed the path of Balaam, ⁿthe son of Bosor, ^owho loved the wages of unrighteousness ^p16but received a rebuke for his transgression: A donkey that could not talk spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s irrationality. ^q

¹⁷These people are springs without water, mists driven by a whirlwind. The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them. ^r18For by uttering boastful, empty words, ^sthey seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escaped ^tfrom those who live in error. ¹⁹They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them. ^u20For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, ^vthey are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first. ^w21For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness ^xthan, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command ^ydelivered ^zto them. ^a22It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit, ^bcand, “a sow, after washing itself, wallows in the mud.”