²⁰ Above all, you must understand^(A) that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. ²¹ For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God^(B) as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.^(C)

False Teachers and Their Destruction

2 But there were also false prophets^(D) among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.^(E) They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord^(F) who bought them^(G)—bringing swift destruction on themselves. ² Many will follow their depraved conduct^(H) and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. ³ In their greed^(I) these teachers will exploit you^(J) with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

⁴ For if God did not spare angels when they sinned,^(K) but sent them to hell,^[a] putting them in chains of darkness^[b] to be held for judgment;^{(L) 5} if he did not spare the ancient world^(M) when he brought the flood on its ungodly people,^(N) but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;^{(O) 6} if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes,^(P) and made them an example^(Q) of what is going to happen to the ungodly;^{(R) 7} and if he rescued Lot,^(S) a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless^{(T) 8} (for that righteous man,^(U) living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— ⁹ if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials^(V) and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.^(W)