2 Peter 2

The Danger of False Teachers

1But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. 2Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. 3In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.

4For God did not spare even the angels who sinned. He threw them into hell,#2:4a Greek Tartarus. in gloomy pits of darkness,#2:4b Some manuscripts read in chains of gloom. where they are being held until the day of judgment. 5And God did not spare the ancient world—except for Noah and the seven others in his family. Noah warned the world of God’s righteous judgment. So God protected Noah when he destroyed the world of ungodly people with a vast flood. 6Later, God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and turned them into heaps of ashes. He made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people. 7But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him. 8Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day. 9So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment. 10He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority.

These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings#2:10 Greek at glorious ones, which are probably evil angels. without so much as trembling. 11But the angels, who are far greater in power and strength, do not dare to bring from the Lord#2:11 Other manuscripts read to the Lord; still others do not include this phrase at all. a charge of blasphemy against those supernatural beings.

12These false teachers are like unthinking animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed. They scoff at things they do not understand, and like animals, they will be destroyed. 13Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done. They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad daylight. They are a disgrace and a stain among you. They delight in deception#2:13 Some manuscripts read in fellowship meals. even as they eat with you in your fellowship meals. 14They commit adultery with their eyes, and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lure unstable people into sin, and they are well trained in greed. They live under God’s curse. 15They have wandered off the right road and followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor,#2:15 Some manuscripts read Bosor. who loved to earn money by doing wrong. 16But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice.

17These people are as useless as dried-up springs or as mist blown away by the wind. They are doomed to blackest darkness. 18They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting. With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception. 19They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you. 20And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. 21It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. 22They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.”#2:22 Prov 26:11. And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.”

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2 Peter 2

False Prophets and Teachers

1But #Deut. 13:1; See Matt. 7:15false prophets also arose among the people, #Acts 20:30; 2 Cor. 11:13; 1 Tim. 4:1; [Matt. 24:11] just as there will be false teachers among you, who will #Jude 4; [Matt. 10:33; Gal. 2:4] secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master #1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23; Gal. 3:13; 4:5; Rev. 5:9; [Ex. 15:16; 1 Pet. 1:18; Rev. 14:3, 4]who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth #Rom. 2:24will be blasphemed. 3And #[2 Cor. 12:17, 18; 1 Tim. 6:5; Titus 1:11] in their greed they will exploit you #Rom. 16:18; Col. 2:4with false words. #[Deut. 32:35; Phil. 3:19]Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

4For if God did not spare #Jude 6angels when they sinned, but #[Rev. 20:2, 3, 10] cast them into hell#2:4 Greek Tartarus and committed them to chains#2:4 Some manuscripts pits of gloomy darkness #Matt. 25:41to be kept until the judgment; 5if he did not spare the ancient world, but #See 1 Pet. 3:20preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought #ch. 3:6; Job 22:16a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6if by #See Gen. 19:24turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, #[Num. 26:10] making them an example of #Jude 15what is going to happen to the ungodly;#2:6 Some manuscripts an example to those who were to be ungodly 7and #Gen. 19:16if 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, #Ps. 119:136, 158; [Ezek. 9:4]he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9then #1 Cor. 10:13; Rev. 3:10the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials,#2:9 Or temptations and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10and especially #Jude 16, 18those who indulge#2:10 Greek who go after the flesh in the lust of defiling passion and #Jude 8; [Ex. 22:28]despise authority.

Bold and willful, they do not tremble #Jude 8; [Ex. 22:28]as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11#Jude 9whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12#Jude 10But these, like irrational animals, #[Jer. 12:3; Phil. 3:19]creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13suffering wrong as #ver. 15the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure #[Rom. 13:13; 1 Thess. 5:7]; See James 5:5to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions,#2:13 Some manuscripts love feasts while #[1 Cor. 11:21]they feast with you. 14They have eyes full of adultery,#2:14 Or eyes full of an adulteress #[1 Pet. 4:1] insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts #ver. 3; [1 Tim. 4:7] trained in greed. #[Eph. 2:3]Accursed children! 15Forsaking the right way, #Ezek. 14:11they have gone astray. They have followed #Num. 22:5, 7; Deut. 23:4; Neh. 13:2; Jude 11; Rev. 2:14the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved #ver. 13gain from wrongdoing, 16but was rebuked for his own transgression; #Num. 22:21, 23, 28a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

17 # Jude 12 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. #Jude 13For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18For, #Jude 16speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely #ver. 20; ch. 1:4escaping from those who live in error. 19They promise them #Gal. 5:13; See James 1:25freedom, #John 8:34; Rom. 6:16but they themselves are slaves#2:19 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20For if, #ver. 18after they have escaped the defilements of the world #See ch. 1:2through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, #Matt. 12:45the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21For #[Ezek. 18:24; Luke 12:47; Heb. 6:4-6; 10:26, 27; James 4:17] it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from #Rom. 7:12the holy commandment delivered to them. 22What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The #Prov. 26:11dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

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