4 For 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, 5 and 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, 6 and 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, 7 and 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), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to reserve the unrighteous to be punished atc the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who go after the flesh in defiling lustd and who despise authority.

Bold and arrogant, they do not tremble in awe as they* blaspheme majestic beings, 11 whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a demeaning judgment.e 12 But 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, 13 being 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, 14 having eyes full of desire for an adulteress and unceasing from sin, enticing unstable persons, and* having hearts trained for greediness. Accursed children! 15 By* 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, 16 but received a rebuke for his own lawlessness: a speechless donkey, speaking with a human voice, restrained ⌊the prophet’s madness⌋h.

17 These people are waterless springs and mists driven by a hurricane, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved. 18 ⌊For by speaking high-sounding but empty words⌋i, they entice with desires of the flesh and with licentiousness those who are scarcely escaping from those who live in error, 19 promising them freedom although they* themselves are slaves of depravity. For to whatever someone succumbs, by this he is alsoj enslaved. 20 For if, after they* have escaped from the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lordk and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled in these things and succumb to them, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them. 22 The statement of the true proverb has happened to them, “A dog returns to its own vomit,”l and “A sow, after* washing herself, returns* to wallowing in the mud.”m

The Coming Day of the Lord

3 Dear friends, this is already the second letter I am writing to you, in both of which I am attempting to stir up your sincere mind by a reminder, 2 to remember the words proclaimed beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 above all knowing this, that in the last days scoffers will come with scoffing, following according to their own desires 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ⌊ever since⌋a the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued just as they have been from the beginning of creation.” 5 For when* they maintain this, it escapes their notice that the heavens existed long ago and the earth held together out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 by means of which things the world that existed at that time was destroyed by* being inundated with water. 7 But by the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly people.

8 Now, dear friends, do not let this one thing escape your notice, that one day with the Lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day. 9 The Lord is not delaying the promise, as some consider slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he* does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance.