2 Peter 2:1-9 ▼

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 {despotēn} who bought them—bringing swift destruction (ruin) on themselves.

2 Many will follow in their depravity, and because of them the way of truth will be defamed (blasphemed).

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.

4 For if God {Theos} did not spare the angels (messengers) when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell {Tartarus}, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment;

5 if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah (comfort), a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;

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 (on future generations of the ungodly);

7 and if He rescued Lot (covering), a righteous man distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless

8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul {psychēn} by the lawless deeds (acts) he saw and heard)—

9 if all this is so, then the Lord {Kyrios} knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.