2 Peter 2

The Rise and Fall of the False Teachers

1 But there were also false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you also, who will bring in {destructive heresies}[a], even denying the Master who bought them, [thus][b] bringing on themselves swift destruction.
2 And many will follow their licentious ways, because of whom the way of truth will be reviled.
3 And in greediness they will exploit you with false words, whose condemnation [from] long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but held [them] captive in Tartarus with chains of darkness [and] handed [them] over to be kept for judgment,
5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, {and seven others}[c] [when he][d] brought a flood on the world of the ungodly,
6 and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes, having appointed [them] [as] an example for those who are going to be ungodly,
7 and rescued righteous Lot, worn down by the way of life of lawless persons in licentiousness
8 (for that righteous man, [as he][e] lived among them day after day, was tormenting [his] righteous soul by the lawless deeds [he was] seeing and hearing),
9 [then] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to reserve the unrighteous to be punished at[f] the day of judgment,
10 and especially those who go after the flesh in defiling lust[g] and who despise authority. Bold [and] arrogant, they do not tremble in awe [as they] blaspheme majestic beings,
11 whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a demeaning judgment.[h]
12 But these persons, like irrational animals born [only with] natural [instincts] for capture and killing, blaspheming {about things}[i] they do not understand, in their destruction will also be destroyed,
13 being harmed [as the] wages of unrighteousness. Considering reveling in the daytime a pleasure, [they are] stains and blemishes, carousing in their deceitful pleasures [when they][j] feast together with you,
14 having eyes full of [desire for] an adulteress and unceasing from sin, enticing unstable persons, [and][k] having hearts trained for greediness. Accursed children!
15 [By][l] leaving the straight path, they have gone astray, [because they] followed the way of Balaam the [son of] Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness,
16 but received a rebuke for his own lawlessness: a speechless donkey, speaking with a human voice, restrained {the prophet's madness}.
17 These [people] are waterless springs and mists driven by a hurricane, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved.
18 {For by speaking high-sounding but empty words}, they entice with desires of the flesh [and] with licentiousness those who are scarcely escaping from those who live in error,
19 promising them freedom [although they] themselves are slaves of depravity. For to whatever someone succumbs, by this he is also enslaved.
20 For if, [after they] have escaped from the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled in these [things] [and] succumb to [them], the last [state] has become worse for them than the first.
21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known [it], to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them.
22 The [statement] of the true proverb has happened to them, "A dog returns to its own vomit," and "A sow, [after] washing herself, [returns] to wallowing in the mud."

Footnotes 24

  • [a]. Literally "heresies of destruction"
  • [b]. *Here "[thus]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("bringing on") which is understood as result
  • [c]. Literally "eighth"
  • [d]. *Here "[when]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("brought") which is understood as temporal
  • [e]. *Here "[as]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("lived") which is understood as temporal
  • [f]. Or "until"
  • [g]. Literally "in lust of defilement," translated here as an attributive genitive
  • [h]. Some manuscripts have "a demeaning judgment from the Lord"
  • [i]. Literally "with reference to which"
  • [j]. *Here "[when]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("feast together") which is understood as temporal
  • [k]. *Here "[and]" is supplied in keeping with English style
  • [l]. *Here "[by]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("leaving") which is understood as means
  • [m]. *Here "[because]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("followed") which is understood as causal
  • [n]. Although some English versions use "Beor" here, this is due to harmonization with the Old Testament; the vast majority of Greek manuscripts read "Bosor" here
  • [o]. Literally "the of the prophet madness"
  • [p]. Literally "for speaking pompous [words] of emptiness"
  • [q]. *Here "[although]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("are") which is understood as concessive
  • [r]. Some manuscripts omit "also"
  • [s]. *Here "[after]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("have escaped from") which is understood as temporal
  • [t]. Some manuscripts have "of our Lord"
  • [u]. A paraphrased quotation from Prov 26:11
  • [v]. *Here "[after]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("washing herself") which is understood as temporal
  • [w]. *The verb "[returns]" is not in the Greek text, but is an understood repetition from the previous clause
  • [x]. The source of this quotation is uncertain

2 Peter 2 Commentaries

Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.