2 Peter 2

1But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will quietly bring in destructive lies. They will even say no to the Master who bought them, and they will bring quick ruin on themselves.

2Many people will follow their shameful ways, and because of them, others will speak evil of the way of truth.

3These teachers are greedy. They will use clever lies to make money from you. But their judgment has been ready for a long time, and their ruin is not asleep.

4God did not spare the angels when they sinned. God threw them down to hell and kept them in chains of darkness, to wait for judgment.

5And God did not spare the ancient world. But God saved Noah, who preached what is right, along with seven others, when God brought the flood on the world of sinful people.

6God turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes. God condemned them, and made them an example of what will happen to sinful people.

7But God rescued Lot, a good man who was troubled by the filthy lives of the evil people around him.

8(Day after day, this good man lived among them and was deeply troubled in his soul by the evil things he saw and heard.)

9So the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their troubles, and how to hold sinful people for punishment on the day of judgment.

10This is especially true for those who follow their dirty desires and hate authority. These teachers are bold and proud. They are not afraid to insult powerful spirits.

11Yet even angels, who are far stronger and more powerful, do not bring insulting charges against those spirits before the Lord.

12But these false teachers insult what they do not understand. They are like wild animals that act without thinking, born only to be caught and destroyed. And like animals, they too will be destroyed.

13They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. They love to enjoy themselves in broad daylight. They are stains and spots among you, enjoying their lies while they eat with you.

14Their eyes are full of adultery; they never stop sinning. They trap people who are weak. Their hearts are trained to be greedy. They are under God's curse.

15They have left the right way and wandered off. They have followed the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved to be paid for doing wrong.

16But a donkey corrected him for his sin. The donkey, which cannot talk, spoke with a human voice and stopped the prophet's madness.

17These false teachers are like wells with no water, like clouds blown away by a storm. The deepest darkness has been kept for them.

18They brag with empty, proud words. By appealing to sinful desires, they trap people who are just escaping from those who live wrongly.

19These false teachers promise other people freedom, while the false teachers themselves are slaves to what is rotten. For a person is a slave to whatever controls that person.

20These people had escaped the filth of the world by knowing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But if they get caught in it again and are beaten by it, they are worse off at the end than they were at the start.

21It would have been better for them never to have known the right way, than to know it and then turn away from the holy command that was given to them.

22What the true sayings say has happened to them: A dog returns to its own vomit, and: A washed pig goes back to rolling in the mud.