2 Peter 2–3

False Prophets and Their Punishment

²But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions. They will even deny the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.^{* 2}Even so, many will follow their debaucheries, and because of these teachers^h the way of truth will be maligned. ³And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep.^*

⁴For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and committed them to chainsⁱ of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment;^{* 5}and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;^{* 6}and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to destruction^j and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;^{k 7}and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the debauchery of the lawless^{* 8}(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard), ⁹then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial and to keep the unrighteous until the day of judgment, when they will be punished^{* 10}—especially those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust and who despise authority.

Bold and willful, they are not afraid to slander the glorious ones,^{l* 11}whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not bring against them a slanderous judgment.^{m 12}These people, however, are like irrational animals, mere creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed. They slander what they do not understand, and as those creatures are destroyed,ⁿ they also will be destroyed, ¹³suffering^o the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures^p while they feast with you.^{* 14}They have eyes full of adultery,^q insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! ¹⁵They have left the straight road and have gone astray, following the road of Balaam son of Bosor,^r who loved the wages of doing wrong^{* 16}but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

¹⁷These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest darkness has been reserved.^{* 18}For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with debased^s desires of the flesh they entice people who have just^t escaped from those who live in error. ¹⁹They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, for people are slaves to whatever masters them.^{* 20}For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the^u Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first.^{* 21}For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was handed on to them.^{* 22}It has happened to them according to the true proverb,

“The dog turns back to its own vomit,”

and,

“The sow is washed only to wallow in the mud.”^*

The Promise of the Lord’s Coming

³This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you; in them I am trying to arouse your sincere intention by reminding you ²that you should remember the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken through your apostles. ³First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts^{* 4}and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died,^v all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!”^{* 5}They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago and an earth was formed out of water and by means of water,^{* 6}through which the world of that time was deluged with water and perished.^{* 7}But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the godless.^*

⁸But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.^{* 9}The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you,^w not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.^{* 10}But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be destroyed with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.^x*

¹¹Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, ¹²waiting for and hastening^y the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and destroyed and the elements will melt with fire? ¹³But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.^*

Final Exhortation and Doxology

¹⁴Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish,^{* 15}and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,^{* 16}speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist^z to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. ¹⁷You therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, beware that you are not carried away with the error of the lawless and lose your own stability.^{* 18}But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.^a