For if God didn’t spare(A) the angels who sinned but cast them into hell[a](B) and delivered them in chains[b] of utter darkness to be kept for judgment;(C) and if he didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah,(D) a preacher of righteousness, and seven others,[c](E) when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly; and if he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah(F) to ashes and condemned them to extinction,[d] making them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;(G) and if he rescued righteous Lot,(H) distressed by the depraved behavior of the immoral (for as that righteous man lived among them day by day, his righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds he saw and heard(I))— then the Lord knows how to rescue(J) the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,(K) 10 especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority.(L)

Bold, arrogant people! They are not afraid to slander the glorious ones;

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Footnotes

  1. 2:4 Gk Tartarus
  2. 2:4 Other mss read in pits
  3. 2:5 Lit Noah, the eighth, a preacher of righteousness
  4. 2:6 Other mss omit to extinction

For God did not spare even the angels who sinned. He threw them into hell,[a] in gloomy pits of darkness,[b] where they are being held until the day of judgment. And God did not spare the ancient world—except for Noah and the seven others in his family. Noah warned the world of God’s righteous judgment. So God protected Noah when he destroyed the world of ungodly people with a vast flood. Later, God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and turned them into heaps of ashes. He made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people. But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him. Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day. So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment. 10 He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority.

These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings[c] without so much as trembling.

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Footnotes

  1. 2:4a Greek Tartarus.
  2. 2:4b Some manuscripts read in chains of gloom.
  3. 2:10 Greek at glorious ones, which are probably evil angels.