2 Peter 2
2
False Teachers Condemned
1But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies. They will even deny the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
2Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result the way of the truth will be maligned.
3In their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction does not slumber.
4For God did not spare angels when they sinned, but threw them into Sheol. He put them in chains of gloomy darkness, to be held until the judgment.
5He did not spare the ancient world. He preserved only Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, along with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.
6He devastated the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ashes—making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.
7He rescued Lot, a righteous man deeply troubled by the shameless immorality of the wicked.
8(For that righteous man, while living among them, was tormented in his righteous soul day after day by lawless deeds he saw and heard.)
9Therefore the Lord certainly knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and how to keep the unrighteous being punished until the Day of Judgment—
10especially those who follow after the flesh in its unclean desires and who despise the Lord’s authority. Brazen and arrogant, these people do not tremble while slandering glorious beings;
11yet even angels, though stronger and more powerful, do not bring a slanderous charge against them before the Lord.
12But these people are like irrational animals—creatures of instinct born to be captured and killed. They malign what they don’t understand, and in their destruction they will be utterly destroyed.
13They will be paid back for what they have done—evil for evil. They consider carousing in broad daylight a pleasure. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceitful pleasures while feasting together with you.
14They have eyes full of adultery that never stop sinning, enticing unstable souls. They have hearts trained in greed—a cursed brood!
15They have abandoned the straight way. They have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.
16But he received a rebuke for his own wrongdoing. A dumb donkey spoke with a man’s voice and put a stop to the prophet’s madness.
17These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. The gloom of utter darkness has been reserved for them.
18For by mouthing grandiosities that amount to nothing, they entice in sensual fleshly passions those who are barely escaping from those who live in error.
19They promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption—for a person is a slave to whatever has overcome him.
20For if—after escaping the world’s pollutions through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Yeshua the Messiah—they again become entangled in these things and are overcome, the end for them has become worse than the beginning.
21For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after learning about it, to turn back from the holy commandment passed on to them.
22What has happened to them confirms the truth of the proverb, “A dog returns to its vomit,” and “A scrubbed pig heads right back into the mud.”
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Copyright © 2014 - Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society
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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