2 Peter 2

VIN(i) 1 Now there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies that even deny the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words; from long ago their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not been asleep. 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5 if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight; 6 if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— 9 if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. 10 Such punishment is specially reserved for those who indulge the corrupt desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and self-willed, these men are unafraid to slander angelic majesties. 11 Yet even angels, although they are greater in strength and power, do not bring a slanderous accusation against them from the Lord. 12 But these, speaking evil of the things that they do not understand (as natural animals without reason, who are made to be taken and destroyed), shall utterly perish in their own corruption, 13 The harm they will suffer is the wages of their wickedness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deception as they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, that never cease from sin; they entice unstable souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of wickedness. 16 but he was rebuked for his own transgression by a donkeya beast without speechwho spoke with a man's voice and restrained the prophet's madness. 17 These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18 With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice the ones who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to corruption. For a man is a slave to whatever has overcome him. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled by them, and overcome, they are worse off in the end than at the beginning. 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to know it and turn their backs on the holy commandment that was committed to them. 22 Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”