2 Peter, 2

1. As there were false prophets in the past history of our people, so you too will have your false teachers, who will insinuate their own disruptive views and, by disowning the Lord who bought them freedom, will bring upon themselves speedy destruction.

1. But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

2. Many will copy their debauched behaviour, and the Way of Truth will be brought into disrepute on their account.

2. And many will follow their licentiousness, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled.

3. In their greed they will try to make a profit out of you with untrue tales. But the judgement made upon them long ago is not idle, and the destruction awaiting them is for ever on the watch.

3. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words; from of old their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not been asleep.

4. When angels sinned, God did not spare them: he sent them down into the underworld and consigned them to the dark abyss to be held there until the Judgement.

4. For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of nether gloom to be kept until the judgment;

5. He did not spare the world in ancient times: he saved only Noah, the preacher of uprightness, along with seven others, when he sent the Flood over a world of sinners.

5. if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven other persons, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;

6. He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by reducing them to ashes as a warning to future sinners;

6. if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomor'rah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example to those who were to be ungodly;

7. but rescued Lot, an upright man who had been sickened by the debauched way in which these vile people behaved-

7. and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked

8. for that upright man, living among them, was outraged in his upright soul by the crimes that he saw and heard every day.

8. (for by what that righteous man saw and heard as he lived among them, he was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their lawless deeds),

9. All this shows that the Lord is well able to rescue the good from their trials, and hold the wicked for their punishment until the Day of Judgement,

9. then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,

10. especially those who follow the desires of their corrupt human nature and have no respect for the Lord's authority. Such self-willed people with no reverence are not afraid of offending against the glorious ones,

10. and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and wilful, they are not afraid to revile the glorious ones,

11. but the angels in their greater strength and power make no complaint or accusation against them in the Lord's presence.

11. whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a reviling judgment upon them before the Lord.

12. But these people speak evil of what they do not understand; they are like brute beasts, born only to be caught and killed, and like beasts they will be destroyed, being injured in return for the injuries they have inflicted.

12. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed, reviling in matters of which they are ignorant, will be destroyed in the same destruction with them,

13. Debauchery even by day they make their pleasure; they are unsightly blots, and amuse themselves by their trickery even when they are sharing your table;

13. suffering wrong for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their dissipation, carousing with you.

14. with their eyes always looking for adultery, people with an insatiable capacity for sinning, they will seduce any but the most stable soul. Where greed is concerned they are at their peak of fitness. They are under a curse.

14. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!

15. They have left the right path and wandered off to follow the path of Balaam son of Bosor, who set his heart on a dishonest reward, but soon had his fault pointed out to him:

15. Forsaking the right way they have gone astray; they have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Be'or, who loved gain from wrongdoing,

16. a dumb beast of burden, speaking with a human voice, put a stop to the madness of the prophet.

16. but was rebuked for his own transgression; a dumb ass spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.

17. People like this are dried-up springs, fogs swirling in the wind, and the gloom of darkness is stored up for them.

17. These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved.

18. With their high-sounding but empty talk they tempt back people who have scarcely escaped from those who live in error, by playing on the disordered desires of their human nature and by debaucheries.

18. For, uttering loud boasts of folly, they entice with licentious passions of the flesh men who have barely escaped from those who live in error.

19. They may promise freedom but are themselves slaves to corruption; because if anyone lets himself be dominated by anything, then he is a slave to it;

19. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved.

20. and anyone who has escaped the pollution of the world by coming to know our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and who then allows himself to be entangled and mastered by it a second time, ends up by being worse than he was before.

20. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

21. It would have been better for them never to have learnt the way of uprightness, than to learn it and then desert the holy commandment that was entrusted to them.

21. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

22. What they have done is exactly as the proverb rightly says: The dog goes back to its vomit and: As soon as the sow has been washed, it wallows in the mud.

22. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, The dog turns back to his own vomit, and the sow is washed only to wallow in the mire.