2 Peter 2

The Rise of False Prophets

1 But 1false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be 2false teachers 3among you, who will 4secretly introduce 5destructive heresies, even 6denying the 7Master who 8bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
2 Many will follow their 9sensuality, and because of them 10the way of the truth will be 11maligned;
3 and in their 12greed they will 13exploit you with 14false words; 15their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
4 For 16if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and 17committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;
5 and did not spare 18the ancient world, but preserved 19Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a 20flood upon the world of the ungodly;
6 and if He 21condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an 22example to those who would 23live ungodly lives thereafter;
7 and if He 24rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the 25sensual conduct of 26unprincipled men
8 (for by what he saw and heard that 27righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds ),
9 28then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the 29day of judgment,
10 and especially those who 30indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and 31despise authority. Daring, 32self-willed, they do not tremble when they 33revile angelic majesties,
11 34whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.
12 But 35these, like unreasoning animals, 36born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where * they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed,
13 suffering wrong as 37the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to 38revel in the 39daytime. They are stains and blemishes, 40reveling in their deceptions, as they 41carouse with you,
14 having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, 42enticing 43unstable souls, having a heart trained in 44greed, 45accursed children;
15 forsaking 46the right way, they have gone astray, having followed 47the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved 48the wages of unrighteousness;
16 but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, 49for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.
17 These are 50springs without water and mists driven by a storm, 51for whom the black darkness has been reserved.
18 For speaking out 52arrogant words of 53vanity they 54entice by fleshly desires, by 55sensuality, those who barely 56escape from the ones who live in error,
19 promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for 57by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.
20 For if, after they have 58escaped the defilements of the world by 59the knowledge of the 60Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again 61entangled in them and are overcome, 62the last state has become worse for them than the first.
21 63For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from 64the holy commandment 65handed on to them.
22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "66A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT," and, "A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire."

Cross References 66

  • 1. Deuteronomy 13:1f; Jeremiah 6:13
  • 2. 2 Corinthians 11:13
  • 3. Matthew 7:15; 1 Timothy 4:1
  • 4. Galatians 2:4; Jude 4
  • 5. 1 Corinthians 11:19; Galatians 5:20
  • 6. Jude 4
  • 7. Revelation 6:10
  • 8. 1 Corinthians 6:20
  • 9. Genesis 19:5f; 2 Peter 2:7, 18; Jude 4
  • 10. Acts 16:17; Acts 22:4; Acts 24:14
  • 11. Romans 2:24
  • 12. 1 Timothy 6:5; 2 Peter 2:14; Jude 16
  • 13. 2 Corinthians 2:17; 1 Thessalonians 2:5
  • 14. Romans 16:18; 2 Peter 1:16
  • 15. Deuteronomy 32:35
  • 16. Jude 6
  • 17. Revelation 20:1
  • 18. Ezekiel 26:20; 2 Peter 3:6
  • 19. Genesis 6:8, 9; 1 Peter 3:20
  • 20. 2 Peter 3:6
  • 21. Genesis 19:24; Jude 7
  • 22. Isaiah 1:9; Matthew 10:15; Matthew 11:23; Romans 9:29; Jude 7
  • 23. Jude 15
  • 24. Genesis 19:16, 29
  • 25. Genesis 19:5f; 2 Peter 2:2, 18; Jude 4
  • 26. 2 Peter 3:17
  • 27. Hebrews 11:4
  • 28. 1 Corinthians 10:13; Revelation 3:10
  • 29. Matthew 10:15; Jude 6
  • 30. 2 Peter 3:3; Jude 16, 18
  • 31. Exodus 22:28; Jude 8
  • 32. Titus 1:7
  • 33. Exodus 22:28; Jude 8
  • 34. Jude 9
  • 35. Jude 10
  • 36. Jeremiah 12:3; Colossians 2:22
  • 37. 2 Peter 2:15
  • 38. Romans 13:13
  • 39. 1 Thessalonians 5:7
  • 40. Romans 13:13
  • 41. 1 Corinthians 11:21; Jude 12
  • 42. 2 Peter 2:18
  • 43. James 1:8; 2 Peter 3:16
  • 44. 2 Peter 2:3
  • 45. Ephesians 2:3
  • 46. Acts 13:10
  • 47. Numbers 22:5, 7; Deuteronomy 23:4; Nehemiah 13:2; Jude 11; Revelation 2:14
  • 48. 2 Peter 2:13
  • 49. Numbers 22:21, 23, 28, 30f
  • 50. Jude 12
  • 51. Jude 13
  • 52. Jude 16
  • 53. Ephesians 4:17
  • 54. 2 Peter 2:14
  • 55. 2 Peter 2:2
  • 56. 2 Peter 1:4; 2 Peter 2:20
  • 57. John 8:34; Romans 6:16
  • 58. 2 Peter 2:18
  • 59. 2 Peter 1:2
  • 60. 2 Peter 1:11; 2 Peter 3:18
  • 61. 2 Timothy 2:4
  • 62. Matthew 12:45; Luke 11:26
  • 63. Ezekiel 18:24; Hebrews 6:4f; Hebrews 10:26; James 4:17
  • 64. Galatians 6:2; 1 Timothy 6:14; 2 Peter 3:2
  • 65. Jude 3
  • 66. Proverbs 26:11

Footnotes 8

  • [a]. Or "herald"
  • [b]. Lit "trial;" or "temptation"
  • [c]. Lit "go after"
  • [d]. Lit "glories"
  • [e]. Lit "their destruction also"
  • [f]. One early ms reads "love feasts"
  • [g]. Lit "blackness of darkness"
  • [h]. Lit "The thing of the true proverb has happened to them"

2 Peter 2 Commentaries

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