2 Peter 2:9-22

Holman Christian Standard Bible

⁹ then the Lord knows how to rescue^(A) the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,^{(B) 10} especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority.^(C)

Bold, arrogant people! They do not tremble when they blaspheme the glorious ones; ¹¹ however, angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring a slanderous charge against them before the Lord.^{[a] 12} But these people, like irrational animals—creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed—speak blasphemies about things they don’t understand, and in their destruction they too will be destroyed, ¹³ suffering harm as the payment for unrighteousness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, delighting in their deceptions^[b] as they feast with you. ¹⁴ They have eyes full of adultery^(D) and are always looking for sin. They seduce unstable people and have hearts trained in greed. Children under a curse!^{(E) 15} They have gone astray by abandoning the straight path^(F) and have followed the path of Balaam,^(G) the son of Bosor,^[c] who loved the wages of unrighteousness^{(H) 16} but received a rebuke for his transgression: A donkey that could not talk spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s irrationality.^(I)

¹⁷ These people are springs without water, mists driven by a whirlwind. The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them.^{(J) 18} For by uttering boastful, empty words,^(K) they seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escaped^[d] from those who live in error. ¹⁹ They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them.^{(L) 20} For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,^(M) they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first.^{(N) 21} For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness^(O) than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command^(P) delivered^(Q) to them.^{(R) 22} It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit,^(S)[e] and, “a sow, after washing itself, wallows in the mud.”