2 Peter 2

False Prophets and Teachers

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

4 For if God did not spare i angels when they sinned, but j cast them into hell ▼
▼ Greek Tartarus
 and committed them to chains ▼
▼ Some manuscripts pits
 of gloomy darkness m to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but n preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought o a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by p turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction q making them an example of r what is going to happen to the ungodly; ▼
▼ Some manuscripts an example to those who were to be ungodly
 7 and t if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, u he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then v the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, ▼
▼ Or temptations
 and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially x those who indulge ▼
▼ Greek  who go after the flesh
 in the lust of defiling passion and z despise authority.

Bold and willful, they do not tremble aa as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11  ab whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12  ac But these, like irrational animals ad creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13 suffering wrong as ae the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure af to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions ▼
▼ Some manuscripts love feasts
 while ah they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, ai insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts aj trained in greed. ak Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way al they have gone astray. They have followed am the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved an gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; ao a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

17  ap These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. aq For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For ar speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely as escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them at freedom, au but they themselves are slaves ▼
▼ Greek bondservants
 of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if aw after they have escaped the defilements of the world ax through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome ay the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For az it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from ba the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The bb dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

Copyright information for ESV