2 Peter 2:1–22

The Rise of False Prophets

¹But ^afalse prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be ^bfalse teachers ^camong you, who will ^dsecretly introduce ^edestructive heresies, even ^fdenying the ^gMaster who ^hbought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

²Many will follow their ^asensuality, and because of them ^bthe way of the truth will be ^cmaligned;

³and in their ^agreed they will ^bexploit you with ^cfalse words; ^dtheir judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

⁴For ^aif God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and ^bcommitted them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;

⁵and did not spare ^athe ancient world, but preserved ^bNoah, a ¹preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a ^cflood upon the world of the ungodly;

⁶and if He ^acondemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an ^bexample to those who would ^clive ungodly lives thereafter;

⁷and if He ^arescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the ^bsensual conduct of ^cunprincipled men

⁸(for by what he saw and heard that ^arighteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds),

^9athen the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from ¹temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the ^bday of judgment,

¹⁰and especially those who ^1aindulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and ^bdespise authority.

Daring, ^cself-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic ²majesties,

^11awhereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.

¹²But ^athese, like unreasoning animals, ^bborn as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in ¹the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed,

¹³suffering wrong as ^athe wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to ^brevel in the ^cdaytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their ¹deceptions, as they ^dcarouse with you,

¹⁴having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, ^aenticing ^bunstable souls, having a heart trained in ^cgreed, ^daccursed children;

¹⁵forsaking ^athe right way, they have gone astray, having followed ^bthe way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved ^cthe wages of unrighteousness;

¹⁶but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, ^afor a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.

¹⁷These are ^asprings without water and mists driven by a storm, ^bfor whom the ¹black darkness has been reserved.

¹⁸For speaking out ^aarrogant words of ^bvanity they ^centice by fleshly desires, by ^dsensuality, those who barely ^eescape from the ones who live in error,

¹⁹promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for ^aby what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.

²⁰For if, after they have ^aescaped the defilements of the world by ^bthe knowledge of the ^cLord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again ^dentangled in them and are overcome, ^ethe last state has become worse for them than the first.

^21aFor it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from ^bthe holy commandment ^chanded on to them.

²²¹It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “^aA dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”