03/14/2015
2 Peter 2
(KJ21)
But there were false prophets also among
the people, even as there shall be false
teachers among you, who privily shall bring
in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord
who bought them, and bring upon
themselves swift destruction.
And many shall follow their pernicious
ways, by reason of whom the way of truth
shall be evilly spoken of.
And through covetousness shall they with
feigned words make merchandise of you —they whose judgment now for a long time
lingereth not, and their damnation
slumbereth not.
For if God spared not the angels who
sinned, but cast them down to hell and
delivered them into chains of darkness to be
reserved unto judgment;
and spared not the old world, but saved
Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of
righteousness, bringing in the Flood upon
the world of the ungodly;
and, turning the cities of S***m and
Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to
be overthrown, making them an example
unto those who thereafter should live
ungodly;
and if He delivered righteous Lot, vexed
with the filthy conduct of the wicked
(for that righteous man, having dwelt
among them seeing and hearing, was vexed
in his righteous soul day after day with their
unlawful deeds)—
then the Lord knoweth how to deliver the
godly out of temptations and to reserve the
unjust unto the Day of Judgment to be
punished,
but chiefly those who walk after the flesh
in the lust of uncleanness, and despise
governance. Presumptuous are they and
selfwilled; they are not afraid to speak evil of
dignities,
whereas angels, which are greater in
power and might, bring not railing
accusation against them before the Lord.
But these, as natural brute beasts, made
to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the
things that they understand not, and shall
utterly perish in their own corruption,
and shall receive the reward of
unrighteousness, as those who count it
pleasure to revel in the daytime. Spots they
are and blemishes, sporting themselves with
their own deceptions while they feast with
you,
having eyes full of adultery and who
cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable
souls; their hearts they have exercised with
covetous practices; accursed children!
They have forsaken the right way and
have gone astray, following the way of
Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the
wages ofunrighteousness,
but was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb
ass speaking with a man’s voice forbad the
madness of the prophet.
These are wells without water, clouds that
are carried by a tempest, for whom the mist
of darkness is reserved for ever.
For when they speak great swelling words
of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the
flesh and through much wantonness those
who had clean escaped from those who live
in error.
While they promise them liberty, they
themselves are the servants of corruption;
for by whom a man is overcome, by the
same is he brought into bo***ge.
For if, after they have escaped the
pollutions of the world through the
knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, they are again entangled therein and
overcome, the latter end is worse with them
than the beginning.
For it would have been better for them not
to have known the way of righteousness,
than, after they had known it, to turn from
the holy commandment delivered unto them.
But it has happened unto them according
to the true proverb: “The dog turns to his
own vomit again,” and, “the sow that was
washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”
