2 Pedro 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;

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.'