2 Peter 2
1BUT there were false prophets also among the people, as there will be false teachers among you also, who stealthily will bring in destructive factions, even denying as Master him who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
2And many will follow their dissolute ways; by reason of whom the way of truth will be evil spoken of.
3And in covetousness will they with feigned words make merchandise of you; for whom the judgment from of old lingers not, and their destruction slumbers not.
4For if God spared not angels, having sinned, but casting them down to hell delivered them over to chains of darkness[2:4], reserved unto judgment;
5and spared not the old world, but kept Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing the flood on the world of ungodly men,
6and turning to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah condemned them to overthrow, having made them an example of those who should afterward live ungodly;
7and delivered righteous Lot, wearied out with the lewd conduct of the lawless;
8(for that righteous man, dwelling among them, with seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
9the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust under punishment to the day of judgment;
10but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise dominion. Presumptuous, self-willed, they are not afraid to rail at dignities;
11whereas angels, being greater in strength and power, bring not a railing judgment against them before the Lord.
12But these, as natural brute beasts born to be taken[2:12] and destroyed, railing at things that they understand not, shall utterly perish in their own corruption,
13receiving the wages of unrighteousness, as they who account reveling for a day pleasure; spots, and blemishes, reveling in their own deceits while feasting with you;
14having eyes full of the adulteress, and that cease not from sin; alluring unstable souls; having a heart exercised in covetousness; children of a curse;
15forsaking the right way, they went astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness,
16but was rebuked for his iniquity; the dumb ass, speaking with man's voice, forbade the madness of the prophet.
17These are wells without water, mists driven by a tempest, to whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever.
18For, speaking swelling words of vanity, in lusts of the flesh they allure, by wanton ways, such as partly escape those who live in error;
19promising them liberty, while they themselves are servants of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by the same he is also brought into bondage.
20For if, having escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christy but having again become entangled therein they are overcome, the last state is become worse with them than the first.
21For it were better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
22But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog, returned to his own vomit; and, A sow that was washed, to the wallowing in the mire.