Peter (The Second Epistle General of )

But false prophets were also among the people, as also false teachers will be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, and denying the Master who has bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves.

And many will follow their destructive ways, by whom the way of truth will be evil spoken of.

And by covetousness, with well-turned words, they will use you for gain, for whom judgment of old does not linger, and their destruction does not slumber.

For if God did not spare sinning angels, but delivered [them] to chains of darkness, thrust down into Tartarus, having been kept to judgment;

and did not spare [the] ancient world, but preserved Noah [the] eighth, a herald of righteousness, bringing a flood on a world of ungodly ones;

and covering the cities [of] Sodom and Gomorrah with ashes, [He] condemned [them] with an overthrow, setting an example to men intending to live ungodly.

And He delivered righteous Lot, who had been oppressed by the behavior of the lawless in lustfulness.

For that righteous one living among them day after day, in seeing and in hearing, [his] righteous soul [was] tormented with [their] lawless deeds.

and most of all those going after flesh in [the] lust of defilement, and despising rulership, darers, self-pleasing; they do not tremble [at] glories, speaking evil;

where angels being greater in strength and power do not bring against them a reproaching charge before [the] Lord.

But these as unreasoning natural beasts, having been born for capture and corruption, speaking evil in that [of] which they are ignorant, they shall utterly perish in their corruption,

being about to receive [the] wages of unrighteousness, having deemed indulgence in the day [to be] pleasure; spots and blemishes reveling [in] their deceits, feasting along with you,

having eyes full of an adulteress, and never ceasing from sin; alluring unsettled souls; having a heart busied [with] covetousness; cursed children;

forsaking a straight path, they went astray, following the way of Balaam the [son] of Beor, who loved [the] wages of unrighteousness,

but had reproof of [his] own transgression, the dumb ass speaking in a man's voice held back the madness of the prophet.

These are springs without water, clouds being driven by tempest, for whom the blackness of darkness is kept forever.

For speaking great swelling [words] of vanity, by [the] lusts of the flesh, by unbridled lusts, they allure those indeed escaping the ones living in error,

promising them freedom, [though] themselves being slaves of corruption; for by whom anyone has been overcome, even to this one he has been enslaved.

For if by a full knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, [they] have escaped the defilements of the world, and again being entangled [they] have been overcome by these, [then their] last things have become worse [than] the first.

For it was better for them not to have fully known the way of righteousness, than fully knowing to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.

But [the] word of the true proverb has happened to them: "[The] dog turning to [his] own vomit;" also, [the] washed sow to wallowing [in] mud.