2 Peter 2

KING JAMES BIBLE	NEW JERUSALEM
1 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 that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.	1 As there were false prophets in the past history of our people, so you too wil have your false teachers,who wil insinuate their own disruptive views and, by disowning the Lord who bought them freedom, wil bringupon themselves speedy destruction.
2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.	2 Many wil copy their debauched behaviour, and the Way of Truth wil be brought into disrepute on theiraccount.
3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.	3 In their greed they wil try to make a profit out of you with untrue tales. But the judgement made uponthem long ago is not idle, and the destruction awaiting them is for ever on the watch.
4 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;	4 When angels sinned, God did not spare them: he sent them down into the underworld and consignedthem to the dark abyss to be held there until the Judgement.
5 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;	5 He did not spare the world in ancient times: he saved only Noah, the preacher of uprightness, alongwith seven others, when he sent the Flood over a world of sinners.
6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;	6 He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by reducing them to ashes as a warning to futuresinners;
7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:	7 but rescued Lot, an upright man who had been sickened by the debauched way in which these vilepeople behaved-
8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)	8 for that upright man, living among them, was outraged in his upright soul by the crimes that he saw andheard every day.
9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:	9 Al this shows that the Lord is well able to rescue the good from their trials, and hold the wicked for theirpunishment until the Day of Judgement,
10 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.	10 especially those who follow the desires of their corrupt human nature and have no respect for theLord's authority. Such self-wil ed people with no reverence are not afraid of offending against the glorious ones,
11 Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.	11 but the angels in their greater strength and power make no complaint or accusation against them inthe Lord's presence.
12 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;	12 But these people speak evil of what they do not understand; they are like brute beasts, born only to becaught and kil ed, and like beasts they wil be destroyed, being injured in return for the injuries they haveinflicted.
13 And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;	13 Debauchery even by day they make their pleasure; they are unsightly blots, and amuse themselves bytheir trickery even when they are sharing your table;
14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:	14 with their eyes always looking for adultery, people with an insatiable capacity for sinning, they wilseduce any but the most stable soul. Where greed is concerned they are at their peak of fitness. They are undera curse.
15 Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;	15 They have left the right path and wandered off to fol ow the path of Balaam son of Bosor, who set hisheart on a dishonest reward, but soon had his fault pointed out to him:
16 But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet.	16 a dumb beast of burden, speaking with a human voice, put a stop to the madness of the prophet.
17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.	17 People like this are dried-up springs, fogs swirling in the wind, and the gloom of darkness is stored upfor them.
18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.	18 With their high-sounding but empty talk they tempt back people who have scarcely escaped fromthose who live in error, by playing on the disordered desires of their human nature and by debaucheries.
19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.	19 They may promise freedom but are themselves slaves to corruption; because if anyone lets himself bedominated by anything, then he is a slave to it;
20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.	20 and anyone who has escaped the pol ution of the world by coming to know our Lord and SaviourJesus Christ, and who then allows himself to be entangled and mastered by it a second time, ends up by beingworse than he was before.
21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.	21 It would have been better for them never to have learnt the way of uprightness, than to learn it andthen desert the holy commandment that was entrusted to them.
22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.	22 What they have done is exactly as the proverb rightly says: The dog goes back to its vomit and: Assoon as the sow has been washed, it wal ows in the mud.