New Testament · 2 Peter

2 Peter 2

Deliverance from False Prophets

(Jude 1:3–16)

1But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth^a will be blasphemed. 3And in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their verdict^b from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

4For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into Tartarus and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment^d;^c 5and if He did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness^e, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6and if He condemned^f the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would afterward live ungodly; 7and if He rescued righteous Lot, who was greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the lawless^g ones — 8for that righteous man, dwelling among them day after day, was tormenting his righteous soul^h over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard — 9then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,

10and especially those who indulge in the desire of defiling passion and despise authority — bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones,ⁱ 11whereas angels, though greater in strength^j and power^k, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord.

12But these, like irrational animals — creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed — blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13receiving the wage of their wrongdoing; they count it pleasure to revel in the daytime — they are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions while they feast with you. 14They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin; they entice unstable souls^l; they have hearts^m trained in greed — accursed children.

15Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray; they have followed the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16but was rebuked for his own transgression — a speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.

17These are waterless springs, clouds driven by a storm; for them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. 18For, speaking loud boasts of vanity, they entice by fleshlyⁿ desires of sensuality those who have actually escaped from those who live in error.^o 19They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption — for whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.

20For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the complete knowledge of the Lord and Savior Yeshua Messiah, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.^p 21For it would have been better for them never to have clearly know the way of righteousness than having clearly know it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.^q 22What the true proverb says has happened to them: "The dog returns to its own vomit," and "the sow, after washing, returns to wallow in the mire."