2 Peter 2

The Judgment of False Teachers

1But there were also false prophets # Dt 13:1-5; Mt 7:15 among the people, just as there will be false teachers # Ac 20:29; 2Co 11:13-15; Gl 2:4; 1Tm 4:1; 2Tm 4:3 among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought # 1Co 6:20; 7:23 them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves. 2Many will follow their unrestrained ways, and the way of truth will be blasphemed because of them. # Rm 2:24 3They will exploit # Jms 4:13 you in their greed # Eph 5:3 with deceptive words. Their condemnation, # Mt 12:41; 23:33; Rm 3:8 pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.

4For if God didn’t spare # Rm 8:32; Jd 6 the angels who sinned but threw them down into Tartarus # = Gk name for a place of divine punishment in the underworld. # Rv 20:2-3,10 and delivered them to be kept in chains # Other mss read in pits of darkness until judgment; # Mt 25:41 5and if He didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, # Gn 5:29 a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, # Lit righteousness, as the eighth # 1Pt 3:20 when He brought a flood on the world of the ungodly; 6and if He reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah # Gn 19:24; Jd 7 to ashes and condemned them to ruin, # Other mss omit to ruin making them an example to those who were going to be ungodly; # Other mss read an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly # Is 1:9; Jd 15 7and if He rescued righteous Lot, # Gn 19:16 distressed by the unrestrained behavior of the immoral 8(for as he lived among them, that righteous man tormented himself day by day with the lawless deeds he saw and heard # Ps 119:136,158; Ezk 9:4) — 9then the Lord knows how to rescue # 1Co 10:13 the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, # Mt 10:15; Jd 6 10especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority. # Jd 8-12

Bold, arrogant people! They do not tremble when they blaspheme the glorious ones; 11however, angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring a slanderous charge against them before the Lord. # Other mss read them from the Lord 12But these people, like irrational animals — creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed — speak blasphemies about things they don’t understand, and in their destruction they too will be destroyed, 13suffering harm as the payment for unrighteousness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, delighting in their deceptions # Other mss read delighting in the love feasts as they feast with you. 14They have eyes full of adultery # Mt 5:27-28 and are always looking for sin. They seduce unstable people and have hearts trained in greed. Children under a curse! # Jr 23:14; Hs 4:2; Eph 2:3; Heb 2:13 15They have gone astray by abandoning the straight path # Ac 13:10 and have followed the path of Balaam, # Nm 22:5-7; Dt 23:4; Neh 13:2; Jd 11; Rv 2:14 the son of Bosor, # Other mss read Beor who loved the wages of unrighteousness # Hs 9:1; Mc 1:7; Ac 1:18 16but received a rebuke for his transgression: A donkey that could not talk spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s irrationality. # Nm 22:22-35

17These people are springs without water, mists driven by a whirlwind. The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them. # Jd 13 18For by uttering boastful, empty words, # Jd 16 they seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escaped # Or people who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them. # Jn 8:34; Rm 6:16; 7:5 20For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, # 2Pt 1:2 they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first. # Mt 12:45; Lk 11:26 21For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness # Pr 8:20; 12:28; 16:31; 21:21; Mt 21:32 than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command # Rm 7:12; 1Tm 6:14 delivered # Jd 3 to them. # Ezk 18:1-32; Heb 6:4-6; 10:26-27 22It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit, # Pr 26:11 # Pr 26:11 and, “a sow, after washing itself, wallows in the mud.”

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2 Peter 2: HCSB

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