2 Peter
Chapter 2
1 But there were fake prophets among the people, just as there will be fake teachers among you. They will secretly introduce harmful false teachings, even denying God who saved them, and cause quick destruction for themselves.
2 Many will follow their harmful ways, and because of them, the way of truth will be badly spoken of.
3 Greedy people will use fake words to exploit you. Their punishment, long overdue, won’t be delayed, and their destruction is not asleep.
4 If God did not spare the angels who sinned but threw them into hell and put them in dark chains to be kept for judgment;
5 God did not spare the ancient world, but He saved Noah, the eighth person, who was a preacher of doing right, by bringing a flood on the world of the wicked.
6 God turned Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, punishing them as a warning to those who would live wickedly.
7 God rescued good man Lot, who was troubled by the evil peoples’ dirty behavior.
8 The good man lived among them, and he felt troubled every day by the wrong things he saw and heard them do.
9 God knows how to save good people from trials and keep the wrongdoers for punishment on the judgment day.
10 Mostly those who follow their desires in impure lust and scorn authority are bold and stubborn, not fearing to insult those with honor.
11 Even angels, stronger and more powerful, don’t bring harsh accusations against others before God.
12 These people, like wild animals born to be caught and killed, speak badly about what they don’t understand and will completely die in their own corruption.
13 They will get the punishment for wrongdoing because they think it’s fun to go wild in broad daylight. They are like stains and flaws, enjoying their tricks while they eat with you.
14 They have eyes full of cheating and can’t stop sinning; they trick weak people and have hearts trained in greed; they are cursed.
15 They left the right path and went wrong, following the path of Balaam, son of Beor, who loved getting paid for doing wrong.
16 But was corrected for his wrong: the silent donkey speaking with a human voice stopped the prophet’s craziness.
17 These are like empty wells and clouds blown away by storms; they are headed for the darkest darkness forever.
18 When they speak big, empty words, they tempt people with fleshly desires and reckless behavior, those who had barely gotten away from those making mistakes.
19 They promise freedom, but they are slaves to corruption. For if something defeats a person, that person is enslaved by it.
20 If, after they have escaped the world’s corruption by knowing Jesus Christ, they get caught and overcome by it again, their final state is worse than their first.
21 It would have been better if they had never known the right way, than to know it and then turn away from the holy command they were given.
22 What happened to them is just like the true saying, “A dog goes back to its vomit,” and, “A washed pig returns to roll in the mud.”