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2 Peter 2
GOD’S WORD Translation

Warnings about False Teachers

2 False prophets were among God’s people ⌞in the past⌟, as false teachers will be among you. They will secretly bring in their own destructive teachings. They will deny the Lord, who has bought them, and they will bring themselves swift destruction. 2 Many people will follow them in their sexual freedom and will cause others to dishonor the way of truth. 3 In their greed they will use good-sounding arguments to exploit you. The verdict against them from long ago is still in force, and their destruction is not asleep.

4 God didn’t spare angels who sinned. He threw them into hell, where he has secured them with chains of darkness and is holding them for judgment.

5 God didn’t spare the ancient world either. He brought the flood on the world of ungodly people, but he protected Noah and seven other people. Noah was his messenger who told people about the kind of life that has God’s approval.

6 God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and destroyed them by burning them to ashes. He made those cities an example to ungodly people of what is going to happen to them. 7 Yet, God rescued Lot, a man who had his approval. Lot was distressed by the lifestyle of people who had no principles and lived in sexual freedom. 8 Although he was a man who had God’s approval, he lived among the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Each day was like torture to him as he saw and heard the immoral things that people did.

9 Since the Lord did all this, he knows how to rescue godly people when they are tested. He also knows how to hold immoral people for punishment on the day of judgment. 10 This is especially true of those who follow their corrupt nature along the path of impure desires and who despise the Lord’s authority.

These false teachers are bold and arrogant. They aren’t afraid to insult the ⌞Lord’s⌟ glory. 11 Angels, who have more strength and power than these teachers, don’t bring an insulting judgment against them from the Lord. 12 These false teachers insult what they don’t understand. They are like animals, which are creatures of instinct that are born to be caught and killed. So they will be destroyed like animals 13 and lose what their wrongdoing earned them.

These false teachers are stains and blemishes. They take pleasure in holding wild parties in broad daylight. They especially enjoy deceiving you while they eat with you. 14 They’re always looking for an adulterous woman. They can’t stop looking for sin as they seduce people who aren’t sure of what they believe. Their minds are focused on their greed. They are cursed.

15 These false teachers have left the straight path and wandered off to follow the path of Balaam, son of Beor. Balaam loved what his wrongdoing earned him. 16 But he was convicted for his evil. A donkey, which normally can’t talk, spoke with a human voice and wouldn’t allow the prophet to continue his insanity.

17 These false teachers are dried-up springs. They are a mist blown around by a storm. Gloomy darkness has been kept for them. 18 They arrogantly use nonsense to seduce people by appealing to their sexual desires, especially to sexual freedom. They seduce people who have just escaped from those who live in error. 19 They promise these people freedom, but they themselves are slaves to corruption. A person is a slave to whatever he gives in to.

20 People can know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and escape the world’s filth. But if they get involved in this filth again and give in to it, they are worse off than they were before. 21 It would have been better for them never to have known the way of life that God approves of than to know it and turn their backs on the holy life God told them to live. 22 These proverbs have come true for them: “A dog goes back to its vomit,” and “A sow that has been washed goes back to roll around in the mud.”

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2 Peter 2
Lexham English Bible

The Rise and Fall of the False Teachers

2 But there were also false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you also, who will bring in destructive heresies[a], even denying the Master who bought them, thus[b] bringing on themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their licentious ways, because of whom the way of truth will be reviled. 3 And in greediness they will exploit you with false words, whose condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but held them captive in Tartarus with chains of darkness and handed them over to be kept for judgment, 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, and seven others[c] when he[d] brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, 6 and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes, having appointed them as an example for those who are going to be ungodly, 7 and rescued righteous Lot, worn down by the way of life of lawless persons in licentiousness 8 (for that righteous man, as he[e] lived among them day after day, was tormenting his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he was seeing and hearing), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to reserve the unrighteous to be punished at[f] the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who go after the flesh in defiling lust[g] and who despise authority.

Bold and arrogant, they do not tremble in awe as they[h] blaspheme majestic beings, 11 whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a demeaning judgment.[i] 12 But these persons, like irrational animals born only with natural instincts for capture and killing, blaspheming about things[j] they do not understand, in their destruction will also be destroyed, 13 being harmed as the wages of unrighteousness. Considering reveling in the daytime a pleasure, they are stains and blemishes, carousing in their deceitful pleasures when they[k] feast together with you, 14 having eyes full of desire for an adulteress and unceasing from sin, enticing unstable persons, and[l] having hearts trained for greediness. Accursed children! 15 By[m] leaving the straight path, they have gone astray, because they[n] followed the way of Balaam the son of Bosor,[o] who loved the wages of unrighteousness, 16 but received a rebuke for his own lawlessness: a speechless donkey, speaking with a human voice, restrained the prophet’s madness[p].

17 These people are waterless springs and mists driven by a hurricane, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved. 18 For by speaking high-sounding but empty words[q], they entice with desires of the flesh and with licentiousness those who are scarcely escaping from those who live in error, 19 promising them freedom although they[r] themselves are slaves of depravity. For to whatever someone succumbs, by this he is also[s] enslaved. 20 For if, after they[t] have escaped from the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord[u] and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled in these things and succumb to them, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them. 22 The statement of the true proverb has happened to them, “A dog returns to its own vomit,”[v] and “A sow, after[w] washing herself, returns[x] to wallowing in the mud.”[y]

Footnotes

  1. 2 Peter 2:1 Literally “heresies of destruction”
  2. 2 Peter 2:1 Here “thus” is supplied as a component of the participle (“bringing on”) which is understood as result
  3. 2 Peter 2:5 Literally “eighth”
  4. 2 Peter 2:5 Here “when” is supplied as a component of the participle (“brought”) which is understood as temporal
  5. 2 Peter 2:8 Here “as” is supplied as a component of the participle (“lived”) which is understood as temporal
  6. 2 Peter 2:9 Or “until”
  7. 2 Peter 2:10 Literally “in lust of defilement,” translated here as an attributive genitive
  8. 2 Peter 2:10 Here “as” is supplied as a component of the participle (“blaspheme”) which is understood as temporal
  9. 2 Peter 2:11 Some manuscripts have “a demeaning judgment from the Lord”
  10. 2 Peter 2:12 Literally “with reference to which”
  11. 2 Peter 2:13 Here “when” is supplied as a component of the participle (“feast together”) which is understood as temporal
  12. 2 Peter 2:14 Here “and” is supplied in keeping with English style
  13. 2 Peter 2:15 Here “by” is supplied as a component of the participle (“leaving”) which is understood as means
  14. 2 Peter 2:15 Here “because” is supplied as a component of the participle (“followed”) which is understood as causal
  15. 2 Peter 2:15 Although some English versions use “Beor” here, this is due to harmonization with the Old Testament; the vast majority of Greek manuscripts read “Bosor” here
  16. 2 Peter 2:16 Literally “the of the prophet madness”
  17. 2 Peter 2:18 Literally “for speaking pompous words of emptiness”
  18. 2 Peter 2:19 Here “although” is supplied as a component of the participle (“are”) which is understood as concessive
  19. 2 Peter 2:19 Some manuscripts omit “also”
  20. 2 Peter 2:20 Here “after” is supplied as a component of the participle (“have escaped from”) which is understood as temporal
  21. 2 Peter 2:20 Some manuscripts have “of our Lord”
  22. 2 Peter 2:22 A paraphrased quotation from Prov 26:11
  23. 2 Peter 2:22 Here “after” is supplied as a component of the participle (“washing herself”) which is understood as temporal
  24. 2 Peter 2:22 The verb “returns” is not in the Greek text, but is an understood repetition from the previous clause
  25. 2 Peter 2:22 The source of this quotation is uncertain
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