2 Peter · Berean Standard Bible
2 Peter 2 Berean Standard Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 Now there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.
1 But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction.
2 Many will follow in their depravity, and because of them the way of truth will be defamed.
2 Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned.
3 In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction does not sleep.
3 In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn’t linger, and their destruction will not slumber.
4 For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment;
4 For if God didn’t spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved for judgment;
5 if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;
5 and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly,
6 if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly;
6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live in an ungodly way,
7 and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless
7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked
8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—
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 if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.
9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
10 Such punishment is specially reserved for those who indulge the corrupt desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and self-willed, they are unafraid to slander glorious beings.
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 speak evil of dignitaries,
11 Yet not even angels, though greater in strength and power, dare to bring such slanderous charges against them before the Lord.
11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, don’t bring a slanderous judgment against them before the Lord.
12 These men are like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be captured and destroyed. They blaspheme in matters they do not understand, and like such creatures, they too will be destroyed.
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 The harm they will suffer is the wages of their wickedness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deception as they feast with you.
13 receiving the wages of unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and defects, reveling in their deceit while they feast with you;
14 Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed.
14 having eyes full of adultery, and who can’t cease from sin, enticing unsettled souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children!
15 They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.
15 Forsaking the right way, they went astray, having followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of wrongdoing;
16 But he was rebuked for his transgression by a donkey, otherwise without speech, that spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
16 but he was rebuked for his own disobedience. A speechless donkey spoke with a man’s voice and stopped the madness of the prophet.
17 These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.
17 These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.
18 With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error.
18 For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error;
19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.
19 promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for a man is brought into bondage by whoever overcomes him.
20 If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first.
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the 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 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them.
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 Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”
22 But 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.”
Cross references (22)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Matthew 7:15; Jude 4; Deuteronomy 13:1–3; 2 Timothy 4:3; Matthew 24:11
- 2 Romans 2:24; Jude 10; Matthew 24:24; 2 Peter 2:15; Titus 2:8
- 3 2 Corinthians 2:17; Romans 16:18; Deuteronomy 32:35; 1 Thessalonians 2:5; Jude 15
- 4 Jude 6; Matthew 25:41; Romans 8:32; Revelation 20:1–3; Revelation 12:7–9
- 5 2 Peter 3:6; Hebrews 11:7; Luke 17:26–27; Jude 14–15; 1 Peter 3:19–20
- 6 Jude 7; Luke 17:28–30; Deuteronomy 29:23; Genesis 19:24–25; Numbers 26:10
- 7 Genesis 19:16; Genesis 19:29; Genesis 19:7–8; Genesis 19:22; Genesis 13:13
- 8 Psalm 119:158; Ezekiel 9:4; Psalm 119:136; 1 Timothy 1:9; Proverbs 25:26
- 9 Psalm 34:15–19; 1 Corinthians 10:13; Revelation 3:10; 2 Timothy 3:12; Jude 14–15
- 10 Jude 16; Jude 10; Exodus 22:28; Jude 18; 2 Peter 3:3
- 11 Jude 9; 2 Thessalonians 1:7; Psalm 103:20; Daniel 6:22; Psalm 104:4
- 12 Jude 10; Jeremiah 12:3; Galatians 6:8; 2 Peter 2:19; Psalm 92:6
- 13 Romans 13:13; Romans 2:8–9; Hebrews 2:2–3; Philippians 3:19; Jude 12–16
- 14 2 Peter 2:3; 2 Peter 2:18; Ephesians 2:3; 2 Peter 3:16; Ephesians 4:14
- 15 Revelation 2:14; Jude 11; Deuteronomy 23:4–5; Numbers 31:16; Numbers 22:5–7
- 16 Numbers 22:21–33; Acts 26:11; Luke 16:11; Ecclesiastes 7:25; Ecclesiastes 9:3
- 17 Jude 12–13; Jeremiah 14:3; Ephesians 4:14; Matthew 25:30; 2 Peter 2:4
- 18 2 Peter 2:20; Jude 15–16; Romans 13:13; James 5:5; Revelation 13:5–6
- 19 John 8:34; Romans 6:16–22; Galatians 5:13; Galatians 5:1; 1 Peter 2:16
- 20 Hebrews 10:26–27; Hebrews 6:4–8; Philippians 3:19; Luke 11:24–26; Deuteronomy 32:29
- 21 Ezekiel 18:24; Hebrews 6:4–6; James 4:17; Ezekiel 3:20; Luke 12:47
- 22 Proverbs 26:11
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… saved out of Sodom when all the country round was punished by means of fire and brimstone, the Lord thus making it manifest that He does not forsake those that hope in Him, but gives up such as depart from Him to punishment and torture. For Lot's wife, who went forth with him, being of a different mind from himself …
… incarcerated till their final damnation in the day of judgment, the Apostle Peter very plainly declares, when he says that "God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved into judgment." Who, then, can doubt that God, either in foreknowledge or in act, separated between these …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
… that time have so fallen, nor can I think that it is of them the Apostle Peter said, "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment." I think he rather speaks of these who first apostatized from God, along with their …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
… one who doeth sin is the servant of sin." And thus there are many wicked masters who have religious men as their slaves, and who are yet themselves in bondage; "for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage." And beyond question it is a happier thing to be the slave of a man …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)