2 Peter, 2

1. There 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.

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.

2. Many will follow their licentious ways, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled.

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

3. In their greed they will exploit you with fabrications, but from of old their condemnation has not been idle and their destructiondoes not sleep.

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.

4. For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but condemned them to the chains of Tartarus and handed them over to be kept for judgment;

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.

5. 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;

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.

6. and 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;

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

7. and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man oppressed by the licentious conduct of unprincipled people

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

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),

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

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

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,

10. and especially those who follow the flesh with its depraved desire and show contempt for lordship. Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to revile glorious beings,

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,

11. whereas angels, despite their superior strength and power, do not bring a reviling judgment against them from the Lord.

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

12. But 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,

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.

13. suffering wrong as payment for wrongdoing. Thinking daytime revelry a delight, they are stains and defilements as they revel in their deceits while carousing with you.

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;

14. Their eyes are full of adultery and insatiable for sin. They seduce unstable people, and their hearts are trained in greed. Accursed children!

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.

15. Abandoning the straight road, they have gone astray, following the road of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved payment for wrongdoing,

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:

16. but he received a rebuke for his own crime: a mute beast spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.

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

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

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

18. For, talking empty bombast, they seduce with licentious desires of the flesh those who have barely escaped from people who live inerror.

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.

19. They promise them freedom, though they themselves are slaves of corruption, for a person is a slave of whatever overcomes him.

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;

20. For 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.

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.

21. For 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 to them.

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.

22. What is expressed in the true proverb has happened to them, "The dog returns to its own vomit," and "A bathed sow returns to wallowing in the mire."

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.