2 Peter

¹However, false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. ²Many will follow their immoral²³⁴² ways and as a result, the way of the truth will acquire a bad reputation. ³They will exploit you greedily with deceptive words. Their sentence, pronounced long ago, does not linger, and their destruction does not slumber.

⁴For God did not spare angels when they sinned but cast them down to Tartarus²³⁴³ and committed them to chains²³⁴⁴ of darkness to be reserved for judgment. ⁵He did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah (a preacher of righteousness) with seven others when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly. ⁶He also turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemning them to destruction and making them an example to those who would lead ungodly lives. ⁷He delivered the righteous Lot who was very distressed by the lustful behavior²³⁴⁵ of these wicked people: ⁸that righteous man was living among them and was tormented every day in his righteous soul when he saw and heard lawless deeds. ⁹The Lord knows how to deliver the godly from temptation and how to hold the wicked for their punishment on the day of judgment, ¹⁰especially those who follow the flesh in a desire for corruption, and have no respect for [angelic] authority.²³⁴⁶ Daring and self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of the glorious ones,^{2347 11}whereas angels, although greater in might and power, do not bring a slanderous judgment against them before the Lord. ¹²But these people act as natural irrational creatures [that are meant] to be taken and destroyed. They speak evil in matters about which they are ignorant and in their attempt to destroy they will surely be destroyed, ¹³receiving the wages of unrighteousness. These are people who consider it pleasurable to revel in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, amusing themselves in their deceit while they {celebrate the agape} feast²³⁴⁸ with you. ¹⁴Their eyes are full of adultery and they cannot break away from sin. They entice unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, and they are children of cursing. ¹⁵They have forsaken the right way and have gone astray by following the path of Balaam the son of Bosor²³⁴⁹ who loved being paid for doing evil. ¹⁶But he was rebuked for his own disobedience: a donkey (with no voice) spoke with a human voice and stopped the madness of the prophet. ¹⁷These people are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved forever. ¹⁸With their high-sounding but empty talk, they entice those who were indeed escaping (from those who live in error in the lusts of the flesh) by [promoting] licentiousness. ¹⁹They promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for whoever is overcome by something is brought into slavery by what has overcome him.

²⁰If, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome [by it], their last state has become worse than the first! ²¹It would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, rather than, after knowing it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.^{2350 22}But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, “The dog returns to his own vomit”²³⁵¹ and “the swine that had been washed [has returned] to wallowing in the mire.”

The Lord is not slow

2342. TR reads “destructive”
2343. Tartarus is similar to the Abyss. It is not identical to hell (Gehenna).
2344. Some manuscripts read “pits of darkness”
2345. Or “conduct, way, life”
2346. Compare Revelation 2:12-26
2347. Or “dignitaries,” an obscure text which could be a reference to fallen angels or to sinful Church dignitaries (see also Jude 8-9; Revelation 2:1)
2348. Compare Jude 12
2349. CT reads “Beor”
2350. Compare Matthew 26:24
2351. Proverbs 26:11