2 Peter 2 — GMV

2 Verse 1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies. They will even deny the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. ^{Verse 2} Many will follow their sensual ways, and because of them the way of truth will be maligned. ^{Verse 3} In their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation from of old is not idle, and their destruction will not slumber. ^{Verse 4} For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus and committed them to chains of darkness to be kept for judgment; ^{Verse 5} and if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, along with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; ^{Verse 6} and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, making them an example to those who would live in an ungodly way; ^{Verse 7} and if he rescued righteous Lot, who was distressed by the sensual conduct of the lawless ^{Verse 8} (for as that righteous man dwelt among them, his righteous soul was tormented day after day by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— ^{Verse 9} then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and how to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, ^{Verse 10} especially those who indulge the corrupt desires of the flesh and who despise authority. ^{Verse 11} whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. ^{Verse 12} But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like irrational beasts, creatures of instinct born for capture and destruction, and in the destruction of those beasts they will be destroyed, ^{Verse 13} receiving the wages of unrighteousness. Counting indulgence in the daytime as pleasure, they are stains and blemishes, openly indulging in their deceptions as they feast with you. ^{Verse 14} They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unstable souls. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed. ^{Verse 15} They have abandoned the straight path and gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. ^{Verse 16} But he received a rebuke for his own transgression when a donkey—a speechless animal—spoke with a human voice and prevented the prophet's madness. ^{Verse 17} These men are springs without water, clouds driven by a storm, for whom the thick gloom of darkness has been reserved forever. ^{Verse 18} For they speak bombastic words of nonsense, and with sensual desires of the flesh they entice people who have truly escaped from others who live in error. ^{Verse 19} They promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption. For a man is a slave to whatever masters him. ^{Verse 20} For if after they have escaped from the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these defilements and overcome, the last state is worse for them than the first. ^{Verse 21} It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was passed on to them. ^{Verse 22} What the true proverb says has happened to them: “A dog returns to its own vomit, and a sow, after washing herself, returns to wallowing in the mire.”