2 Peter 2
1 Just like there were false prophets among the [Israeli] people [long ago], so there will also be teachers who teach false [things] among you. They will enter [your congregations] without you realizing [what/who they are], and they will [spiritually] injure some people by what they teach. Specifically, these teachers will even deny [that] the Lord [Jesus died to] pay [for the guilt of our sins]. As a result, they will soon destroy themselves [spiritually, and God will also punish them].
But there were false prophets, too, among the people, just as among you also there will be false teachers. These will secretly bring in destructive sects, denying even the Master who bought them, and bringing swift ruin upon themselves.
2 And many [people] will behave in an extremely immoral manner, imitating the extremely immoral way [these teachers who teach false things] behave. As a result, [unbelievers] will (discredit the true message/say the true message is false).
Then there will be many who will follow their immorality, because of whom the Way of the Truth will be maligned.
3 Because [the teachers of false teaching] want a lot of things that other people have, [they think that] by telling you stories that they themselves have (made up/invented), they will get money from you. [God decided] long ago [that he would] punish them, and he has not fallen asleep [LIT]! [He will certainly destroy them]!
In their covetousness, with cunning words, they will make merchandise of you; those whose doom has not been idle from of old, and whose destruction has not been slumbering.
4 God destroyed [LIT] the angels who sinned. He threw them into the worst place in hell and imprisoned them [there] in darkness in order to keep them there until he judges [and punishes them]. (Tartaroō g5020)
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to chains of darkness, and reserved them for judgment; (Tartaroō g5020)
5 He also got rid of [LIT] [the people who lived in] [MTY] the world long ago. He saved [only] eight of them, including Noah, who was a righteous preacher. God saved them when he destroyed in a flood [all] (the ungodly people/the people whose lives were not pleasing to him) [who were living then].
if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon an ungodly world;
6 He also condemned Sodom and Gomorrah [cities]; that is, he destroyed them by burning them completely to ashes. [By doing that] he gave a warning to those who afterwards would live in (an ungodly way/a way that is displeasing to him).
if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and reduced them to ashes, thus holding them up as a warning to all who would live ungodly;
7 But he rescued [Abraham’s nephew], Lot, who was a righteous [man. Lot] was (greatly distressed/very sad) because the people [in Sodom] were doing very immoral things.
and he delivered righteous Lot who was worn out by the lascivious life of the wicked
8 That righteous [man’s] soul (was tormented/suffered great agony) day after day because he saw and heard those wicked people behave in a very lawless/wicked [manner when he was] living among them.
(for that righteous man, living among them, tormented his righteous soul in seeing and hearing, day after day, their lawless deeds),
9 And since the Lord God [rescued Lot, you can be sure that] he knows how to rescue (other godly people/people whose lives please him) from their sufferings, and [he is able] to preserve (ungodly [people/people whose lives do not please him]), [whom he has started to] punish even now, until the time when he will [finish judging them and punish] them.
then be sure that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to keep the wicked (who are even now enduring punishment) for the "Day of Judgment";
10 [He will punish especially severely] those [ungodly teachers who teach false things] who do the things that their self-directed nature desires, things that (defile them/cause them to be completely impure). Those [teachers of false teachings] despise [all beings who] rule [over them]. 2 Peter 2:10d-16 Because [those teachers of false doctrines are] extremely arrogant/proud [DOU], they (are not afraid to insult/boldly speak evil about) glorious beings [in heaven] (OR, glorious/wonderful beings [who rule over people]).
especially those who spend their lives following the flesh in the lust of defilement, and in despising all authority. Audacious and wilful, they feel no awe in railing against dignities;
11 In contrast, angels do not insult [those teachers] when those teachers accuse the angels [of blasphemy] while the Lord God is watching, even though the angels are much more powerful [DOU] [than the teachers of false doctrines].
even where angels, though surpassing them in strength and might, do not bring a railing judgment against them before the Lord.
12 Because those [teachers of false doctrines are] like animals that cannot think [as humans do] [DOU], they say evil things about [spiritual] things which they know nothing about. [As a result], God will destroy them like [people] destroy [animals], [animals] that are born only in order to be hunted and killed {in order that [people] should hunt and kill them}.
But these men, like irrational creatures, mere animals, born to be taken and destroyed, continually rail about matters of which they know nothing. In their corruption they will surely be destroyed,
13 God will punish [those teachers] in return for the unrighteous actions/things that they have done. They even like (to carouse/to drink and revel noisily) in the daytime [as well as at night]. And as they indulge/enjoy themselves just like they want to while they are feasting with you, they cause you to become impure, [as] [MET] stains and blotches [DOU] [ruin a clean garment].
suffering wrong as the wage of wrong which they have done. These are men who count it pleasure to carouse in open daylight; they are spots and blemishes reveling in their deceit, even while they are feasting with you.
14 They [want to commit] [MTY] adultery [with every woman] whom they look at. They never stop seeking opportunities to sin. They entice/persuade those who are [spiritually] unstable [to join them in doing the sinful things that they do]. [Because of] their ever-increasing (greed/desire to have more and more things), they are doomed [to eternal punishment].
They have eyes full of harlots, eyes that cannot stop sinning. They entice unsteady souls. Their heart is trained in greed. They are an accursed generation.
15 They have (rejected good moral standards/quit doing what everyone knows is right). They have imitated [what the prophet] Balaam, the son of Bosor, [did long ago]. He, [acting very] unrighteously, wanted [the enemies of the Jews] to pay him if he [asked God] ([to curse/to do bad thing to]) [the Jews].
They have forsaken the right way; they have lost their way, and followed the road of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of wrong-doing.
16 But God rebuked him for having done that which was wrong [and for] behaving very foolishly. And even though donkeys do not speak, [God used] a donkey to hinder Balaam [by enabling it to] speak to him with a human voice.
He was, however, rebuked for his own transgression; a dumb ass spoke with a man’s voice, and stopped the madness of the prophet.
17 These [teachers who each false things mislead/deceive people by promising what they cannot do], as [MET] dried-up springs [mislead/deceive people by causing them to expect to get water from them]. They [mislead/deceive people] [MET] just like clouds that are blown along by strong winds [mislead/deceive people by causing them to expect rain, but no rain falls. Therefore], God has reserved the darkness of hell [for those teachers of false doctrines]. (questioned)
Such men are like waterless springs, or mists storm-driven; for them the blackness of darkness has been reserved.
18 By boasting proudly as they make speeches that are worthless, they entice people who have recently [become believers and] have stopped doing the things that wicked people do. Urged on by their self-directed nature, they entice them [into sin] by encouraging them to [do] evil things.
For speaking great swelling words of vanity, they entangle, by their lasciviousness, in the lusts of the flesh, those who are just about to escape from the men that live in misconduct.
19 [The false teachers] tell people that they are free [to do whatever they want to do, even though] they themselves are [like] slaves [MET] [because their own self-directed nature forces them to do] sinful things. [Think about these well-known words: “Whenever a person is controlled by something] {[something controls a person]}, [it is as though] that person has become a slave of what controls him.”
They promise them liberty, while they themselves are slaves of rottenness! (For indeed a man is the slave of anything which masters him.)
20 Those [who teach false truths] learned about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As a result, they stopped doing those things that (defile [people/cause people to become impure]) [spiritually]. Since they have begun to do [those evil things again], with the result that they are unable to stop doing them, they are in a worse condition than [they were in before they knew Jesus Christ].
For if, after having escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, men are again entangled in them and overpowered, their last state is become worse than their first.
21 [Because God will severely punish them], it would have been better for them if they had never known what it means to live in a righteous way. It is too bad that although they knew [how to live in a righteous way], they stopped doing the things that God commanded people to do, the things that [were] taught to them ([by us apostles/by Christ]) {that ([we apostles/Christ]) taught to them}.
Indeed it would have been better for them not to have known the Way of Righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them.
22 [The way they are behaving again] is just like (the proverbs/what people often say): [They are like] dogs that return to [eat] their vomit, and [they are like] pigs that have been washed and then roll [again] in the mud.
In their case it has happened according to the true proverb, The dog returns again to his own vomit, and The sow, after washing, to her wallowing in the mire.
