2 Peter 2
Contemporary English Version
False Prophets and Teachers
2 Sometimes false prophets spoke to the people of Israel. False teachers will also sneak in and speak harmful lies to you. But these teachers don't really belong to the Master who paid a great price for them, and they will quickly destroy themselves. 2 Many people will follow their evil ways and cause others to tell lies about the true way. 3 They will be greedy and cheat you with smooth talk. But long ago God decided to punish them, and God doesn't sleep.
4 God did not have pity on the angels that sinned. He had them tied up and thrown into the dark pits of hell until the time of judgment. 5 (A) And during Noah's time, God did not have pity on the ungodly people of the world. He destroyed them with a flood, though he did save eight people, including Noah, who preached the truth.
6 (B) God punished the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah[a] by burning them to ashes, and this is a warning to anyone else who wants to sin.
7-8 (C) Lot lived right and was greatly troubled by the terrible way those wicked people were living. He was a good man, and day after day he suffered because of the evil things he saw and heard. So the Lord rescued him. 9 This shows that the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their sufferings and to punish evil people while they wait for the day of judgment.
10 The Lord is especially hard on people who disobey him and don't think of anything except their own filthy desires. They are reckless and proud and are not afraid of cursing the glorious beings in heaven. 11 Although angels are more powerful than these evil beings,[b] even the angels don't dare to accuse them to the Lord.
12 These people are no better than senseless animals that live by their feelings and are born to be caught and killed. They speak evil of things they don't know anything about. But their own corrupt deeds will destroy them. 13 They have done evil, and they will be rewarded with evil.
They think it is fun to have wild parties during the day. They are immoral, and the meals they eat with you are spoiled by the shameful and selfish way they carry on.[c] 14 All they think about is having sex with someone else's husband or wife. There is no end to their wicked deeds. They trick people who are easily fooled, and their minds are filled with greedy thoughts. But they are headed for trouble!
15 (D) They have left the true road and have gone down the wrong path by following the example of the prophet Balaam. He was the son of Beor and loved what he got from being a crook. 16 But a donkey corrected him for this evil deed. It spoke to him with a human voice and made him stop his foolishness.
17 These people are like dried up water holes and clouds blown by a windstorm. The darkest part of hell is waiting for them. 18 They brag out loud about their stupid nonsense. And by being vulgar and crude, they trap people who have barely escaped from living the wrong kind of life. 19 They promise freedom to everyone. But they are merely slaves of filthy living, because people are slaves of whatever controls them.
20 When they learned about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they escaped from the filthy things of this world. But they are again caught up and controlled by these filthy things, and now they are in worse shape than they were at first. 21 They would have been better off if they had never known about the right way. Even after they knew what was right, they turned their backs on the holy commandments they were given. 22 (E) What happened to them is just like the true saying,
“A dog will come back
to lick up its own vomit.
A pig that has been washed
will roll in the mud.”
Notas al pie
- 2.6 Sodom and Gomorrah: During the time of Abraham the Lord destroyed these cities because the people there were so evil (see Genesis 19.24).
- 2.11 evil beings: Or “evil teachers.”
- 2.13 and the meals they eat with you are spoiled by the shameful and selfish way they carry on: Some manuscripts have “and the meals they eat with you are spoiled by the shameful way they carry on during your feasts of Christian love.”
2 Peter 2
Holman Christian Standard Bible
The Judgment of False Teachers
2 But there were also false prophets(A) among the people, just as there will be false teachers(B) among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought(C) them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their unrestrained ways, and the way of truth will be blasphemed because of them.(D) 3 They will exploit(E) you in their greed(F) with deceptive words. Their condemnation,(G) pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.
4 For if God didn’t spare(H) the angels who sinned but threw them down into Tartarus[a](I) and delivered them to be kept in chains[b] of darkness until judgment;(J) 5 and if He didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah,(K) a preacher of righteousness, and seven others,[c](L) when He brought a flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 and if He reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah(M) to ashes and condemned them to ruin,[d] making them an example to those who were going to be ungodly;[e](N) 7 and if He rescued righteous Lot,(O) distressed by the unrestrained behavior of the immoral 8 (for as he lived among them, that righteous man tormented himself day by day with the lawless deeds he saw and heard(P))— 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue(Q) the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,(R) 10 especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority.(S)
Bold, arrogant people! They do not tremble when they blaspheme the glorious ones; 11 however, angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring a slanderous charge against them before the Lord.[f] 12 But these people, like irrational animals—creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed—speak blasphemies about things they don’t understand, and in their destruction they too will be destroyed, 13 suffering harm as the payment for unrighteousness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, delighting in their deceptions[g] as they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery(T) and are always looking for sin. They seduce unstable people and have hearts trained in greed. Children under a curse!(U) 15 They have gone astray by abandoning the straight path(V) and have followed the path of Balaam,(W) the son of Bosor,[h] who loved the wages of unrighteousness(X) 16 but received a rebuke for his transgression: A donkey that could not talk spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s irrationality.(Y)
17 These people are springs without water, mists driven by a whirlwind. The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them.(Z) 18 For by uttering boastful, empty words,(AA) they seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escaped[i] from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them.(AB) 20 For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,(AC) they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first.(AD) 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness(AE) than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command(AF) delivered(AG) to them.(AH) 22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit,(AI)[j] and, “a sow, after washing itself, wallows in the mud.”
Notas al pie
- 2 Peter 2:4 = Gk name for a place of divine punishment in the underworld.
- 2 Peter 2:4 Other mss read in pits
- 2 Peter 2:5 Lit righteousness, as the eighth
- 2 Peter 2:6 Other mss omit to ruin
- 2 Peter 2:6 Other mss read an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly
- 2 Peter 2:11 Other mss read them from the Lord
- 2 Peter 2:13 Other mss read delighting in the love feasts
- 2 Peter 2:15 Other mss read Beor
- 2 Peter 2:18 Or people who are barely escaping
- 2 Peter 2:22 Pr 26:11
Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.
Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.