< 2 Peter 2 >
1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you; who will privately introduce destructive sects, denying even the Lord who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction.
2 And many will follow their lewd practices, on account of whom, they way of truth will be evil spoken of.
3 And through covetousness, they will make merchandise of you, by fictitious tales: to whom the punishment threatened of old lingers not, and their destruction slumbers not.
4 For God, indeed, did not spare the angels who sinned, but with chains of darkness confining them in Tartarus, delivered them over to be kept for judgment; (Tartaroō )
5 and did not spare the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth, a proclaimer of righteousness, when he brought the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
6 and having reduced to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, punished them with an overthrow, making them an example to those who should afterward live ungodly:
7 and rescued righteous Lot, exceedingly grieved by the lewd behavior of the lawless:
8 (for; --that righteous man, dwelling among them, by the sight and report of their unlawful deeds, tormented his righteous soul from day to day; )
9 the Lord knows how to rescue the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unrighteous to a day of judgment to be punished;
10 but especially those who go after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and who despise government: being audacious, self-willed, who fear not to revile dignitaries;
11 whereas, angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.
12 But these, as natural, irrational animals, made for capture and destruction, speaking evil of matters which they do not understand, shall be utterly destroyed by their own corruptions;
13 receiving the due reward of unrighteousness. These delight to spend the day in luxurious festivity: they are spots and blemishes, reveling in their deceits when they feast with you;
14 having eyes full of the adulteress, incessantly sinning, alluring unstable souls; having a heart exercised with insatiable desires; an accursed progeny:
15 having forsaken the right path, they have wandered, following in the way of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of iniquity,
16 and was convicted of his transgression; the dumb brute, speaking with man's voice, reprimanded the madness of the prophet.
17 These are wells without water, clouds driven by a tempest; for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever:
18 for, speaking great swelling words of falsehood, they allure by the lusts of the flesh, even by lasciviousness, those who have actually fled away from them who are living in error.
19 They promise them liberty, whilst they themselves are slaves of corruption: for every one is enslaved by that which overcomes him.
20 Now, if, having fled away from the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and being again entangled, they are overcome by them; their last condition is worse than the first.
21 Therefore, it has been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them.
22 But the saying of the true proverb has happened to them: "The dog is returned to his own vomit; and the washed hog, to its wallowing in the mire."
