2 Peter 2
False Prophets and Teachers
But afalse prophets also arose among the people, bjust as there will be false teachers among you, who will csecretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master dwho bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth awill be blasphemed. 3 And ain their greed they will exploit you bwith false words. cTheir condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
4 For if God did not spare aangels when they sinned, but bcast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness cto be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but apreserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought ba flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by aturning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, bmaking them an example of cwhat is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and aif 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, ahe was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then athe Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially athose who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and bdespise authority.
Bold and willful, they do not tremble bas they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 awhereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 aBut these, like irrational animals, bcreatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13 suffering wrong as athe wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure bto revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while cthey feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, ainsatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts btrained in greed. cAccursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, athey have gone astray. They have followed bthe way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved cgain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; aa speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
17 aThese are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. bFor them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, aspeaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely bescaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them afreedom, bbut they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, aafter they have escaped the defilements of the world bthrough the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, cthe last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For ait would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from bthe holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The adog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway,
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025.