2 Peter 2
2
False prophets and teachers
1Sometimes false prophets spoke to the people of Israel. False teachers will also sneak in and speak harmful lies to you. But these teachers don't really belong to the Master who paid a great price for them, and they will quickly destroy themselves. 2Many people will follow their evil ways and cause others to tell lies about the true way. 3They will be greedy and cheat you with smooth talk. But long ago God decided to punish them, and God doesn't sleep.
4God did not have pity on the angels that sinned. He had them tied up and thrown into the dark pits of hell until the time of judgment. 5And during Noah's time, God did not have pity on the ungodly people of the world. He destroyed them with a flood, though he did save eight people, including Noah, who preached the truth.#Gn 6.1—7.24.
6God punished the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah#2.6 Sodom and Gomorrah: During the time of Abraham the Lord destroyed these cities because the people there were so evil. See Genesis 19.24. by burning them to ashes, and this is a warning to anyone else who wants to sin.#Gn 19.24.
7-8Lot lived right and was greatly troubled by the terrible way those wicked people were living. He was a good man, and day after day he suffered because of the evil things he saw and heard. So the Lord rescued him.#Gn 19.1-16. 9This shows that the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their sufferings and to punish evil people while they wait for the day of judgment.
10The Lord is especially hard on people who disobey him and don't think of anything except their own filthy desires. They are reckless and proud and are not afraid of cursing the glorious beings in heaven. 11Although angels are more powerful than these evil beings,#2.11 evil beings: Or “evil teachers”. even the angels don't dare to accuse them to the Lord.
12These people are no better than senseless animals that live by their feelings and are born to be caught and killed. They speak evil of things they don't know anything about. But their own corrupt deeds will destroy them. 13They have done evil, and they will be rewarded with evil.
They think it is fun to have wild parties during the day. They are immoral, and the meals they eat with you are spoilt by the shameful and selfish way they carry on.#2.13 and the meals they eat with you are spoilt by the shameful and selfish way they carry on: Some manuscripts have “and the meals they eat with you are spoilt by the shameful way they carry on during your feasts of Christian love.” 14All they think about is having sex with someone else's husband or wife. There is no end to their wicked deeds. They trick people who are easily fooled, and their minds are filled with greedy thoughts. But they are headed for trouble!
15They have left the true road and have gone down the wrong path by following the example of the prophet Balaam. He was the son of Beor and loved what he got from being a criminal.#Nu 22.4-35. 16But a donkey corrected him for this evil deed. It spoke to him with a human voice and made him stop his foolishness.
17These people are like dried up water holes and clouds blown by a storm. The darkest part of hell is waiting for them. 18They boast out loud about their stupid nonsense. And by being vulgar and crude, they trap people who have barely escaped from living the wrong kind of life. 19They promise freedom to everyone. But they are merely slaves of filthy living, because people are slaves of whatever controls them.
20When they learnt about our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they escaped from the filthy things of this world. But they are again caught up and controlled by these filthy things, and now they are in a worse state than they were at first. 21They would have been better off if they had never known about the right way. Even after they knew what was right, they turned their backs on the holy commandments that they were given. 22What happened to them is just like the true saying,#Pr 26.11.
“A dog will come back
to lick up its own vomit.
A pig that has been washed
will roll in the mud.”
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© British and Foreign Bible Society 2012
2 Peter 2
2
False Teachers.#The pattern of false prophets among the Old Testament people of God will recur through false teachers in the church. Such destructive opinions of heretical sects bring loss of faith in Christ, contempt for the way of salvation (cf. 2 Pt 2:21), and immorality. 1There were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will introduce destructive heresies and even deny the Master who ransomed them, bringing swift destruction on themselves.#Mt 24:11, 24; 1 Tm 4:1; Jude 4. 2Many will follow their licentious ways, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled.#Is 52:5. 3In their greed they will exploit you with fabrications, but from of old their condemnation has not been idle and their destruction does not sleep.#Rom 16:18.
Lessons from the Past. 4#The false teachers will be punished just as surely and as severely as were the fallen angels (2 Pt 2:4; cf. Jude 6; Gn 6:1–4), the sinners of Noah’s day (2 Pt 2:5; Gn 7:21–23), and the inhabitants of the cities of the Plain (2 Pt 2:6; Jude 7; Gn 19:25). Whereas there are three examples in Jude 5–7 (Exodus and wilderness; rebellious angels; Sodom and Gomorrah), 2 Peter omitted the first of these, has inserted a new illustration about Noah (2 Pt 2:5) between Jude’s second and third examples, and listed the resulting three examples in their Old Testament order (Gn 6; 7; 19). For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but condemned them to the chains of Tartarus#Chains of Tartarus: cf. Jude 6; other manuscripts in 2 Peter read “pits of Tartarus.” Tartarus: a term borrowed from Greek mythology to indicate the infernal regions. and handed them over to be kept for judgment;#Jude 6. 5#2:5–10a] Although God did not spare the sinful, he kept and saved the righteous, such as Noah (2 Pt 2:5) and Lot (2 Pt 2:7), and he knows how to rescue the devout (2 Pt 2:9), who are contrasted with the false teachers of the author’s day. On Noah, cf. Gn 5:32–9:29, especially 7:1. On Lot, cf. Gn 13 and 19. and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, together with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the godless world;#Gn 8:15–19; Heb 11:7. 6and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah [to destruction], reducing them to ashes, making them an example for the godless [people] of what is coming;#Gn 19:24–25; Jude 7. 7and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man oppressed by the licentious conduct of unprincipled people 8(for day after day that righteous man living among them was tormented in his righteous soul at the lawless deeds that he saw and heard), 9then the Lord knows how to rescue the devout from trial and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,#1 Cor 10:13; Rev 3:10. 10and especially those who follow the flesh with its depraved desire and show contempt for lordship.#Jude 8.
False Teachers Denounced.#2:10b–22] Some take 2 Pt 2:10b, 11 with the preceding paragraph. Others begin the new paragraph with 2 Pt 2:10a, supplying from 2 Pt 2:9 The Lord knows how…to keep…under punishment, with reference to God and probably specifically Christ (2 Pt 2:1). The conduct of the false teachers is described and condemned in language similar to that of Jude 8–16. This arrogance knows no bounds; animal-like, they are due to be caught and destroyed. They seduce even those who have knowledge of Christ (2 Pt 2:20). Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to revile glorious beings,#2:10b] Glorious beings: literally, “glories”; cf. Jude 8. While some think that illustrious personages are meant or even political officials behind whom (fallen) angels stand, it is more likely that the reference is to glorious angelic beings (cf. Jude 9). 11#From the Lord: some manuscripts read “before the Lord”; cf. Jude 9. whereas angels,#Jude 9. despite their superior strength and power, do not bring a reviling judgment against them from the Lord. 12But these people, like irrational animals born by nature for capture and destruction, revile things that they do not understand, and in their destruction they will also be destroyed,#Ps 49:13–15; Jude 10. 13suffering wrong#Suffering wrong: some manuscripts read “receiving a reward.” In their deceits: some manuscripts read “in their love feasts” (Jude 12). as payment for wrongdoing. Thinking daytime revelry a delight, they are stains and defilements as they revel in their deceits while carousing with you.#Jude 12. 14Their eyes are full of adultery and insatiable for sin. They seduce unstable people, and their hearts are trained in greed. Accursed children! 15Abandoning the straight road, they have gone astray, following the road of Balaam, the son of Bosor,#Balaam, the son of Bosor: in Nm 22:5, Balaam is said to be the son of Beor, and it is this name that turns up in a few ancient Greek manuscripts by way of “correction” of the text. Balaam is not portrayed in such a bad light in Nm 22. His evil reputation and his madness (2 Pt 2:16), and possibly his surname Bosor, may have come from a Jewish tradition about him in the first/second century, of which we no longer have any knowledge. who loved payment for wrongdoing,#Nm 31:16; Jude 11. 16but he received a rebuke for his own crime: a mute beast spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.#Nm 22:28–33.
17These people are waterless springs and mists driven by a gale; for them the gloom of darkness has been reserved.#Jude 12–13. 18For, talking empty bombast, they seduce with licentious desires of the flesh those who have barely escaped#Barely escaped: some manuscripts read “really escaped.” from people who live in error.#Jude 16. 19They promise them freedom, though they themselves are slaves of corruption, for a person is a slave of whatever overcomes him.#Jn 8:34; Rom 6:16–17. 20For if they, having escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of [our] Lord and savior Jesus Christ, again become entangled and overcome by them, their last condition is worse than their first.#Mt 12:45. 21For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment handed down#Commandment handed down: cf. 2 Pt 3:2 and Jude 3. to them.#Ez 3:20. 22#The second proverb is of unknown origin, while the first appears in Prv 26:11. What is expressed in the true proverb has happened to them,#Prv 26:11. “The dog returns to its own vomit,” and “A bathed sow returns to wallowing in the mire.”
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