2 Peter 2
2
The Condemnation of the False Prophets and False Teachers
1 But false prophets also appeared among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will surreptitiously introduce destructive heresies, even repudiating the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
2 And many will follow their licentious practices, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.
3 And driven by greed, they will exploit you with fabricated arguments. The judgment pronounced against them long ago has not been suspended, and their destruction is not delayed.
4 For God did not withhold judgment from angels who rebelled. Instead, He cast them down into Tartarus, consigning them to utter darkness where they are kept under restraint, awaiting final judgment.
5 Nor did He hold back judgment from the ancient world. When He brought the flood upon a society that had rejected Him, He preserved Noah—a preacher of righteousness—together with seven others.
6 Likewise, He condemned Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing those cities to ruin and turning them into a lasting warning of what awaits those who persist in godlessness.
7 Yet at the same time, He rescued righteous Lot, who was deeply distressed by the unrestrained and immoral behavior of lawless people around him.
8 Living among them day after day, that righteous man was inwardly tormented as he witnessed and heard their continual acts of defiance against God.
9 From all this we learn that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly from trial, while at the same time keeping the unrighteous under punishment until the day when judgment is finally executed.
10 This judgment falls especially on those who surrender themselves to corrupt bodily desires and who treat all authority with contempt.
They are reckless, arrogant, and self-assertive, and they show no fear when they speak abusively against the glorious ones.
11 Even angels—who surpass them in strength and power—do not bring slanderous accusations against them in the presence of the Lord.
12 Yet these individuals resemble irrational beasts—creatures governed solely by instinct, bred for capture and slaughter. They pronounce judgment upon matters of which they possess no understanding, and in the very destruction that befalls such animals, they too shall perish.
13 Their suffering will be the fitting return for the harm they cause. They take pleasure in shameless self-indulgence even in public. They are moral stains within the community, openly delighting in their deceptive excesses while sharing meals among you.
14 Their gaze is saturated with lust for an adultress, and they are incapable of breaking free from sin. They prey on those whose faith is unstable. Their hearts have been disciplined—not in godliness, but in greed. Accursed children!
15 By leaving the straight path, they have gone astray, choosing to follow the example of Balaam son of Beor, who was drawn by the reward of unrighteous gain.
16 Yet Balaam was exposed for his own lawlessness when a mute animal spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s reckless madness.
17 These people offer nothing of substance—like springs with no water or clouds driven aimlessly by violent winds. What has been kept for them is the deepest darkness.
18 With inflated and empty speech, they entice people through sensual desires of the flesh—those who are only just breaking free from those who live in deception.
19 They hold out the promise of freedom, yet they themselves are trapped in decay and moral slavery, since a person becomes enslaved to whatever gains mastery over them.
20 For if people escape the corruption of the world by coming to know the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and then become entangled again and overpowered by it, their condition at the end is worse than it was at the beginning.
21 It would have been better for them never to have come to know the path of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn away from the holy commandment entrusted to them.
22 What has happened to them fits the old proverb perfectly: “A dog goes back to its vomit,” and “A pig that has been washed returns to wallowing in filth.*
Notes
22 Quoted from Prov. 26:11
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2 Peter 2: AFINTEXP
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Copyright © 2026 Michael Adeyemi Adegbola. This Scripture text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
