2 PETER 2 [†]But  m false prophets also arose among the people,  n just as there will be false teachers among you, who will  o secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master  p who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2[†]And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth  q will be blasphemed. 3[†]And  r in their greed they will exploit you  s with false words.  t Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

4[†]For if God did not spare  u angels when they sinned, but  v cast them into hell [1] and committed them to chains [2] of gloomy darkness  w to be kept until the judgment; 5[†]if he did not spare the ancient world, but  x preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought  y a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6[†]if by  z turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction,  a making them an example of  b what is going to happen to the ungodly; [3] 7[†]and  c if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8(for as that righteous man lived among them day after day,  d he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9[†]then  e the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, [4] and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10and especially  f those who indulge [5] in the lust of defiling passion and  g despise authority.

Bold and willful, they do not tremble  g as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 h whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12[†] i But these, like irrational animals,  j creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13suffering wrong as  k the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure  l to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, [6] while  m they feast with you. 14[†]They have eyes full of adultery,  n insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts  o trained in greed.  p Accursed children! 15[†]Forsaking the right way,  q they have gone astray. They have followed  r the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved  s gain from wrongdoing, 16but was rebuked for his own transgression;  t a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

17[†] u These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm.  v For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18[†]For,  w speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely  x escaping from those who live in error. 19[†]They promise them  y freedom,  z but they themselves are slaves [7] of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20[†]For if,  a after they have escaped the defilements of the world  b through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome,  c the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21For  d it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from  e the holy commandment delivered to them. 22What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The  f dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”