2But there were also false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you also, who will bring in destructive heresies^a, even denying the Master who bought them, thus^* bringing on themselves swift destruction. ²And many will follow their licentious ways, because of whom the way of truth will be reviled. ³And in greediness they will exploit you with false words, whose condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

⁴For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but held them captive in Tartarus with chains of darkness and handed them over to be kept for judgment, ⁵and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, and seven others^b when he^* brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, ⁶and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes, having appointed them as an example for those who are going to be ungodly, ⁷and rescued righteous Lot, worn down by the way of life of lawless persons in licentiousness ⁸(for that righteous man, as he^* lived among them day after day, was tormenting his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he was seeing and hearing), ⁹then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to reserve the unrighteous to be punished at^c the day of judgment, ¹⁰and especially those who go after the flesh in defiling lust^d and who despise authority.

Bold and arrogant, they do not tremble in awe as they^* blaspheme majestic beings, ¹¹whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a demeaning judgment.^e ¹²But these persons, like irrational animals born only with natural instincts for capture and killing, blaspheming about things^f they do not understand, in their destruction will also be destroyed, ¹³being harmed as the wages of unrighteousness. Considering reveling in the daytime a pleasure, they are stains and blemishes, carousing in their deceitful pleasures when they^* feast together with you, ¹⁴having eyes full of desire for an adulteress and unceasing from sin, enticing unstable persons, and^* having hearts trained for greediness. Accursed children! ¹⁵By^* leaving the straight path, they have gone astray, because they^* followed the way of Balaam the son of Bosor,^g who loved the wages of unrighteousness, ¹⁶but received a rebuke for his own lawlessness: a speechless donkey, speaking with a human voice, restrained the prophet’s madness^h.

¹⁷These people are waterless springs and mists driven by a hurricane, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved.

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Footnotes

aLiterally “heresies of destruction”
*Here “thus” is supplied as a component of the participle (“bringing on”) which is understood as result
bLiterally “eighth”
*Here “when” is supplied as a component of the participle (“brought”) which is understood as temporal
*Here “as” is supplied as a component of the participle (“lived”) which is understood as temporal
cOr “until”
dLiterally “in lust of defilement,” translated here as an attributive genitive
*Here “as” is supplied as a component of the participle (“blaspheme”) which is understood as temporal
eSome manuscripts have “a demeaning judgment from the Lord”
fLiterally “with reference to which”
*Here “when” is supplied as a component of the participle (“feast together”) which is understood as temporal
*Here “and” is supplied in keeping with English style
*Here “by” is supplied as a component of the participle (“leaving”) which is understood as means
*Here “because” is supplied as a component of the participle (“followed”) which is understood as causal
gAlthough some English versions use “Beor” here, this is due to harmonization with the Old Testament; the vast majority of Greek manuscripts read “Bosor” here
hLiterally “the of the prophet madness”