Add parallel Print Page Options

For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and committed them to chains[a] of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment;(A) and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;(B) and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to destruction[b] and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;[c] and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the debauchery of the lawless(C) (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial and to keep the unrighteous until the day of judgment, when they will be punished(D) 10 —especially those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust and who despise authority.

Bold and willful, they are not afraid to slander the glorious ones,[d](E)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 2.4 Other ancient authorities read pits
  2. 2.6 Other ancient authorities lack to destruction
  3. 2.6 Other ancient authorities read an example to those who were to be ungodly
  4. 2.10 Or angels; Gk glories

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.

Read full chapter

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.