1 But there also arose false prophets among the people, as among you
also there will be false teachers, who will secretly bring in destructive
heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves
swift destruction. 2 Many will follow their immoral*1 ways, and as a result, the way of the
truth will be maligned. 3 In covetousness they will exploit you with
deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn’t linger, and their
destruction will not slumber. 4 For if God didn’t spare angels when they
sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus*2 , and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved to judgment;
5 and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven
others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of
the ungodly; 6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes,
condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would
live ungodly; 7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by
the lustful life of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man dwelling among
them, was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and
hearing lawless deeds): 9 the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of
temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of
judgment; 10 but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of
defilement, and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid
to speak evil of dignitaries; 11 whereas angels, though greater in might
and power, don’t bring a railing judgment against them before the Lord.
12 But these, as unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken
and destroyed, speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant, will
in their destroying surely be destroyed, 13 receiving the wages of
unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the day-time, spots
and blemishes, reveling in their deceit while they feast with you;
14 having eyes full of adultery, and who can’t cease from sin; enticing
unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of cursing;
15 forsaking the right way, they went astray, having followed the way of
Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of wrong-doing; 16 but he was
rebuked for his own disobedience. A mute donkey spoke with man’s voice and
stopped the madness of the prophet. 17 These are wells without water,
clouds driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness has been
reserved forever. 18 For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they
entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed
escaping from those who live in error; 19 promising them liberty, while
they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for by whom a man is
overcome, by the same is he also brought into bondage.
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the
knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled
therein and overcome, the last state has become worse with them than the
first. 21 For it would be better for them not to have known the way of
righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment
delivered to them. 22 But it has happened to them according to the true
proverb, “The dog turns to his own vomit again,” and “the sow that had washed
to wallowing in the mire.”
1 TR reads
“destructive” instead of “immoral”
2 Tartarus is another name for
Hell
World English Bible - Public Domain |
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