2 But also [in those days] there arose false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among yourselves, who will subtly and stealthily introduce heretical doctrines (destructive heresies), even denying and disowning the Master Who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

² And many will follow their immoral ways and lascivious doings; because of them the true Way will be maligned and defamed.

³ And in their covetousness (lust, greed) they will exploit you with false (cunning) arguments. From of old the sentence [of condemnation] for them has not been idle; their destruction (eternal misery) has not been asleep.

⁴ For God did not [even] spare angels that sinned, but cast them into hell, delivering them to be kept there in pits of gloom till the judgment and their doom.

⁵ And He spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven other persons, when He brought a flood upon the world of ungodly [people].^(A)

⁶ And He condemned to ruin and extinction the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ashes [and thus] set them forth as an example to those who would be ungodly;^(B)

⁷ And He rescued righteous Lot, greatly worn out and distressed by the wanton ways of the ungodly and lawless—^(C)

⁸ For that just man, living [there] among them, tortured his righteous soul every day with what he saw and heard of [their] unlawful and wicked deeds—

⁹ Now if [all these things are true, then be sure] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly out of temptations and trials, and how to keep the ungodly under chastisement until the day of judgment and doom,

¹⁰ And particularly those who walk after the flesh and indulge in the lust of polluting passion and scorn and despise authority. Presumptuous [and] daring [self-willed and self-loving creatures]! They scoff at and revile dignitaries (glorious ones) without trembling,

¹¹ Whereas [even] angels, though superior in might and power, do not bring a defaming charge against them before the Lord.

¹² But these [people]! Like unreasoning beasts, mere creatures of instinct, born [only] to be captured and destroyed, railing at things of which they are ignorant, they shall utterly perish in their [own] corruption [in their destroying they shall surely be destroyed],

¹³ Being destined to receive [punishment as] the reward of [their] unrighteousness [suffering wrong as the hire for their wrongdoing]. They count it a delight to revel in the daytime [living luxuriously and delicately]. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their ^[a]deceptions and carousing together [even] as they feast with you.

¹⁴ They have eyes full of harlotry, insatiable for sin. They beguile and bait and lure away unstable souls. Their hearts are trained in covetousness (lust, greed), [they are] children of a curse [^[b]exposed to cursing]!

¹⁵ Forsaking the straight road they have gone astray; they have followed the way of Balaam [the son] of Beor, who loved the reward of wickedness.^(D)

¹⁶ But he was rebuked for his own transgression when a dumb beast of burden spoke with human voice and checked the prophet’s madness.^(E)

¹⁷ These are springs without water and mists driven along before a tempest, for whom is reserved forever the gloom of darkness.

¹⁸ For uttering loud boasts of folly, they beguile and lure with lustful desires of the flesh those who are barely escaping from them who are wrongdoers.

¹⁹ They promise them liberty, when they themselves are the slaves of depravity and defilement—for by whatever anyone is made inferior or worse or is overcome, to that [person or thing] he is enslaved.

²⁰ For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through [the full, personal] knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again become entangled in them and are overcome, their last condition is worse [for them] than the first.

²¹ For never to have obtained a [full, personal] knowledge of the way of righteousness would have been better for them than, having obtained [such knowledge], to turn back from the holy commandment which was [verbally] delivered to them.

²² There has befallen them the thing spoken of in the true proverb, The dog turns back to his own vomit, and, The sow is washed only to wallow again in the mire.^(F)

42 Then the man [an angel] brought me forth into the outer court northward, and he brought me to the attached chambers that were opposite the temple yard and were opposite the building on the north.

² Before the long side of one hundred cubits was the door toward the north, and the breadth was fifty cubits.

³ Adjoining the twenty cubits which belonged to the inner court, and opposite the pavement which belonged to the outer court, was balcony facing balcony in three stories.

⁴ And before the attached chambers was a walk inward of ten cubits breadth and a hundred cubits long, and their doors were on the north.

⁵ Now the upper chambers were shorter, for the balconies took off from these more than from the lower and middle chambers of the building.

⁶ For they were in three stories, but did not have pillars as the pillars of the [outer] court; therefore the upper chambers were set back more than the lower and the middle ones from the ground.

⁷ And the wall or fence that was outside, opposite and parallel to the chambers, toward the outer court before the chambers, was fifty cubits long,

⁸ For the length of the [combined] chambers that were on the outer court was fifty cubits, while [the length] of those opposite the temple was a hundred cubits.

⁹ And under these chambers was the entrance on the east side, as one approached them from the outer court.

¹⁰ In the breadth of the wall of the court going toward the east, before the yard and before the building, were the chambers

¹¹ With a passage before them that gave the appearance of the attached chambers on the north, of the same length and breadth, with similar exits and arrangements and doors.

¹² And like the doors of the chambers that were toward the south there was an entrance at the head of the way, the way before the dividing wall toward the east, as one enters them.

¹³ Then said the man [an angel] to me, The north chambers and the south chambers, which are opposite the yard, are the holy chambers where the priests who approach the Lord shall eat the most holy offerings; there shall they lay the most holy things—the meal offering, the sin offering, and the trespass or guilt offering—for the place is holy.

¹⁴ When the priests enter the Holy Place, they shall not go out of it into the outer court unless they lay aside there the garments in which they minister, for these are holy, separate, and set apart. They shall put on other garments before they approach that which is for the people.

¹⁵ Now when he had finished measuring the inner temple area, he brought me forth toward the gate which faces east and measured it [the outer area] round about.

¹⁶ He measured the east side with the measuring reed, five hundred reeds with the measuring reed round about.

¹⁷ He measured the north side, five hundred reeds with the measuring reed round about.

¹⁸ He measured the south side, five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.

¹⁹ He turned about to the west side and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.

²⁰ He measured it on the four sides; it had a wall round about, the length five hundred reeds and the breadth five hundred, to make a separation between that which was holy [the temple proper] and that which was common [the outer area].