2 Peter 2:7-22 ▼

7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked

8 (for that righteous man dwelling among them, was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds):

9 the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment;

10 but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement, and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to blaspheme the glories;

11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not bring a railing judgment against them before the Lord.

12 But these, as unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant, will in their destroying surely be destroyed,

13 suffering the penalty as the wages of evil; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and blemishes, reveling in their deceit while they feast with you;

14 having eyes full of adultery, and insatiable for sin, enticing unstable people, having a heart trained in greed. Children under a curse.

15 Forsaking the right way they went astray, having followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.

16 But he was rebuked for his own transgression; a donkey that could not talk spoke with a human voice and stopped the irrationality of the prophet.

17 These are wells without water, and mists driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved.

18 For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who actually escape from those who live in error;

19 promising them liberty, while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for a person is brought into bondage by whoever overcomes him.

20 For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

21 For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb, |The dog turns to his own vomit again,| and |the sow that has washed to wallowing in the mire.|