2 Peter 2
2
False Prophets and Teachers
1But #Deut. 13:1; See Matt. 7:15 false prophets also arose among the people, #Acts 20:30; 2 Cor. 11:13; 1 Tim. 4:1; [Matt. 24:11] just as there will be false teachers among you, who will #Jude 4; [Matt. 10:33; Gal. 2:4] secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master #1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23; Gal. 3:13; 4:5; Rev. 5:9; [Ex. 15:16; 1 Pet. 1:18; Rev. 14:3, 4]who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth #Rom. 2:24will be blasphemed. 3And #[2 Cor. 12:17, 18; 1 Tim. 6:5; Titus 1:11] in their greed they will exploit you #Rom. 16:18; Col. 2:4 with false words. #[Deut. 32:35; Phil. 3:19]Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
4For if God did not spare #Jude 6 angels when they sinned, but #[Rev. 20:2, 3, 10] cast them into hell#2:4 Greek Tartarus and committed them to chains#2:4 Some manuscripts pits of gloomy darkness #Matt. 25:41to be kept until the judgment; 5if he did not spare the ancient world, but #See 1 Pet. 3:20 preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought #ch. 3:6; Job 22:16a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6if by #See Gen. 19:24 turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, #[Num. 26:10] making them an example of #Jude 15what is going to happen to the ungodly;#2:6 Some manuscripts an example to those who were to be ungodly 7and #Gen. 19:16if 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, #Ps. 119:136, 158; [Ezek. 9:4]he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9then #1 Cor. 10:13; Rev. 3:10the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials,#2:9 Or temptations and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10and especially #Jude 16, 18 those who indulge#2:10 Greek who go after the flesh in the lust of defiling passion and #Jude 8; [Ex. 22:28]despise authority.
Bold and willful, they do not tremble #Jude 8; [Ex. 22:28]as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11#Jude 9whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12#Jude 10 But these, like irrational animals, #[Jer. 12:3; Phil. 3:19]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 #ver. 15 the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure #[Rom. 13:13; 1 Thess. 5:7]; See James 5:5 to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions,#2:13 Some manuscripts love feasts while #[1 Cor. 11:21]they feast with you. 14They have eyes full of adultery,#2:14 Or eyes full of an adulteress #[1 Pet. 4:1] insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts #ver. 3; [1 Tim. 4:7] trained in greed. #[Eph. 2:3]Accursed children! 15Forsaking the right way, #Ezek. 14:11 they have gone astray. They have followed #Num. 22:5, 7; Deut. 23:4; Neh. 13:2; Jude 11; Rev. 2:14 the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved #ver. 13gain from wrongdoing, 16but was rebuked for his own transgression; #Num. 22:21, 23, 28a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
17 #
Jude 12 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. #Jude 13For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18For, #Jude 16 speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely #ver. 20; ch. 1:4escaping from those who live in error. 19They promise them #Gal. 5:13; See James 1:25 freedom, #John 8:34; Rom. 6:16but they themselves are slaves#2:19 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20For if, #ver. 18 after they have escaped the defilements of the world #See ch. 1:2 through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, #Matt. 12:45the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21For #[Ezek. 18:24; Luke 12:47; Heb. 6:4-6; 10:26, 27; James 4:17] it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from #Rom. 7:12the holy commandment delivered to them. 22What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The #Prov. 26:11dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
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