The Second Epistle of
PETER
2 : 1 - 22
1 "But there were also false prophets among the
people, even as there will be false teachers
among you, who will secretly bring in destructive
heresies, even denying the Lord who brought them,
and bring on themselves swift destruction.
2 And many will follow their destructive ways,
because of whom the way of truth will be blas-
phemed.
3 By covetousness they will exploit you with de-
ceptive words; for a long time their judgment has
not been idle,and their destruction does not
slumber.
4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned,
but cast them down to hell and delivered them into
chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment;
5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved
Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteous-
ness, bringing in the flood on the world of the
ungodly;
6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making
them an example to those who afterward would
live ungodly;
7 and delivered righteous Lot who was op-
pressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked
8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them,
tormenting his righteous soul from day to day by
seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)--
9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly
out of temptations and reserve the unjust under
punishment for the day of judgment,
10 and especially those who walk according to the
flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise author-
ity. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are
not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries,
11 whereas angels, who are greater in power and
might, do not bring a reviling accusation against
them before the Lord.
12 But these, like natural brute beasts made to be
caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they
do not understand, and will utterly perish in their
own corruption,
13 and will receive the wages of unrighteousness,
as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the
daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing
in their own deceptions while they feast with you,
14 having eyes full of adultery and that cannot
cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have
a heart trained in covetous practices, and are ac-
cursed children.
15 They have forsaken the right way and gone
astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor,
who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
16 but he was rebuked for his iniquity; a dumb
donkey speaking with a man's voice restrained the
madness of the prophet.
17 These are wells without water, clouds carried
by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness
of darkness forever..
18 For when they speak great swelling words of
emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh,
through lewdness, the ones who have actually es-
caped from those who live in error.
19 While they promise them liberty, they them-
selves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a per-
son is overcome, by him also he is brought into
bondage.
20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of
the world through the knowledge of the Lord an
Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in
and overcome, the latter end is worse for them
then the beginning.
21 For it would have been better for them not to
have known the way of righteousness, than having
known it, to turn from the holy commandment de-
livered to them.
22 But it has happened to them according to the
true proverb: "A dog returns to his own vomit."2(PROVERBS 26:11)
and, "a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in
the mire.""
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