2 Peter 2 — Legacy Standard Bible

The Rise of False Prophets

2But ^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 Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. ²And many 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 who sinned, but cast them into the ¹pit and ^bdelivered them to chains of darkness, being kept 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), ⁹^athen the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from ¹trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the ^bday of judgment, ¹⁰and especially those who ^ago after the flesh in its corrupt lust and ^bdespise authority. Daring, ^cself-willed, they do not tremble when they ^dblaspheme ¹glorious ones, ¹¹^awhereas angels who are greater in strength 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, blaspheming where they have no knowledge, will in ¹the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, ¹³suffering unrighteousness as ^athe wages of their unrighteousness, considering it a pleasure to ^brevel in the ^cdaytime—they are stains and blemishes, ^dreveling in their ¹deceptions, as they ^efeast with you, ¹⁴having eyes full of adultery and unceasing sin, ^aenticing ^bunstable souls, having a heart trained in ^cgreed—they are ^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 lawlessness, ^afor a mute donkey, speaking out 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 kept. ¹⁸For speaking out ^aarrogant words of ^bvanity, they ^centice by ^dsensual lusts of the flesh, those who barely ^eescape from the ones who conducted themselves 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 they are overcome, having both ^aescaped the defilements of the world by ^bthe knowledge of the ^cLord and Savior Jesus Christ and having again been ^dentangled in them, then ^ethe last state has become worse for them than the first. ²¹^aFor 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. ²²The ¹message of the true proverb has happened to them, “^aA dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”