New Revised Standard NRS
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions. They will even deny the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.
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But there were false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly put forward wrong teachings for your destruction, even turning away from the Lord who gave himself for them; whose destruction will come quickly, and they themselves will be the cause of it.
2 Even so, many will follow their licentious ways, and because of these teachers the way of truth will be maligned.
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And a great number will go with them in their evil ways, through whom the true way will have a bad name.
3 And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
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And in their desire for profit they will come to you with words of deceit, like traders doing business in souls: whose punishment has been ready for a long time and their destruction is watching for them.
4 For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment;
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For if God did not have pity for the angels who did evil, but sent them down into hell, to be kept in chains of eternal night till they were judged;
5 and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood on a world of the ungodly;
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And did not have mercy on the world which then was, but only kept safe Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when he let loose the waters over the world of the evil-doers;
6 and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;
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And sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah, burning them up with fire as an example to those whose way of life might in the future be unpleasing to him;
7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the lawless
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And kept safe Lot, the upright man, who was deeply troubled by the unclean life of the evil-doers
8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard),
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(Because the soul of that upright man living among them was pained from day to day by seeing and hearing their crimes):
9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment
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The Lord is able to keep the upright safe in the time of testing, and to keep evil-doers under punishment till the day of judging;
10 —especially those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust, and who despise authority. Bold and willful, they are not afraid to slander the glorious ones,
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But specially those who go after the unclean desires of the flesh, and make sport of authority. Ready to take chances, uncontrolled, they have no fear of saying evil of those in high places:
11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not bring against them a slanderous judgment from the Lord.
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Though the angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not make use of violent language against them before the Lord.
12 These people, however, are like irrational animals, mere creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed. They slander what they do not understand, and when those creatures are destroyed, they also will be destroyed,
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But these men, like beasts without reason, whose natural use is to be taken and put to death, crying out against things of which they have no knowledge, will undergo that same destruction which they are designing for others;
13 suffering the penalty for doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their dissipation while they feast with you.
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For the evil which overtakes them is the reward of their evil-doing: such men take their pleasure in the delights of the flesh even in the daytime; they are like the marks of a disease, like poisoned wounds among you, feasting together with you in joy;
14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!
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Having eyes full of evil desire, never having enough of sin; turning feeble souls out of the true way; they are children of cursing, whose hearts are well used to bitter envy;
15 They have left the straight road and have gone astray, following the road of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of doing wrong,
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Turning out of the true way, they have gone wandering in error, after the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who was pleased to take payment for wrongdoing;
16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
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But his wrongdoing was pointed out to him: an ass, talking with a man's voice, put a stop to the error of the prophet.
17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest darkness has been reserved.
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These are fountains without water, and mists before a driving storm; for whom the eternal night is kept in store.
18 For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with licentious desires of the flesh they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error.
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For with high-sounding false words, making use of the attraction of unclean desires of the flesh, they get into their power those newly made free from those who are living in error;
19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for people are slaves to whatever masters them.
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Saying that they will be free, while they themselves are the servants of destruction; because whatever gets the better of a man makes a servant of him.
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
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For if, after they have got free from the unclean things of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again taken in the net and overcome, their last condition is worse than their first.
21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was passed on to them.
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For it would have been better for them to have had no knowledge of the way of righteousness, than to go back again from the holy law which was given to them, after having knowledge of it.
22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "The dog turns back to its own vomit," and, "The sow is washed only to wallow in the mud."
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They are an example of that true saying, The dog has gone back to the food it had put out, and the pig which had been washed to its rolling in the dirty earth.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.