| NET Bible | New American Standard Bible 1995 |
| 1But false prophets arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. These false teachers will infiltrate your midst with destructive heresies, even to the point of denying the Master who bought them. As a result, they will bring swift destruction on themselves. | 1But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. |
| 2And many will follow their debauched lifestyles. Because of these false teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. | 2Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; |
| 3And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation pronounced long ago is not sitting idly by; their destruction is not asleep. | 3and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. |
| 4For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell and locked them up in chains in utter darkness, to be kept until the judgment, | 4For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; |
| 5and if he did not spare the ancient world, but did protect Noah, a herald of righteousness, along with seven others, when God brought a flood on an ungodly world, | 5and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; |
| 6and if he turned to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah when he condemned them to destruction, having appointed them to serve as an example to future generations of the ungodly, | 6and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; |
| 7and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man in anguish over the debauched lifestyle of lawless men, | 7and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men |
| 8(for while he lived among them day after day, that righteous man was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard) | 8(for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), |
| 9--if so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from their trials, and to reserve the unrighteous for punishment at the day of judgment, | 9then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, |
| 10especially those who indulge their fleshly desires and who despise authority. Brazen and insolent, they are not afraid to insult the glorious ones, | 10and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, |
| 11yet even angels, who are much more powerful, do not bring a slanderous judgment against them before the Lord. | 11whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord. |
| 12But these men, like irrational animals--creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed--do not understand whom they are insulting, and consequently in their destruction they will be destroyed, | 12But these, like unreasoning animals, born 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, |
| 13suffering harm as the wages for their harmful ways. By considering it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight, they are stains and blemishes, indulging in their deceitful pleasures when they feast together with you. | 13suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, |
| 14Their eyes, full of adultery, never stop sinning; they entice unstable people. They have trained their hearts for greed, these cursed children! | 14having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; |
| 15By forsaking the right path they have gone astray, because they followed the way of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, | 15forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; |
| 16yet was rebuked for his own transgression (a dumb donkey, speaking with a human voice, restrained the prophet's madness). | 16but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet. |
| 17These men are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm, for whom the utter depths of darkness have been reserved. | 17These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved. |
| 18For by speaking high-sounding but empty words they are able to entice, with fleshly desires and with debauchery, people who have just escaped from those who reside in error. | 18For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, |
| 19Although these false teachers promise such people freedom, they themselves are enslaved to immorality. For whatever a person succumbs to, to that he is enslaved. | 19promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. |
| 20For if after they have escaped the filthy things of the world through the rich knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again get entangled in them and succumb to them, their last state has become worse for them than their first. | 20For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. |
| 21For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them. | 21For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. |
| 22They are illustrations of this true proverb: "A dog returns to its own vomit," and "A sow, after washing herself, wallows in the mire." | 22It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT," and, "A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire." |
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