2 Peter 2

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 There were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will introduce destructive heresies and even deny the Master who ransomed them, bringing swift destruction on themselves.	1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be among you lying teachers, who will introduce divisions of perdition, and they will deny him who bought them, the Lord, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
2 Many will follow their licentious ways, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled.	2 And many persons will follow their indulgences; through such persons, the way of truth will be blasphemed.
3 In their greed they will exploit you with fabrications, but from of old their condemnation has not been idle and their destructiondoes not sleep.	3 And in avarice, they will negotiate about you with false words. Their judgment, in the near future, is not delayed, and their perdition does not sleep.
4 For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but condemned them to the chains of Tartarus and handed them over to be kept for judgment;	4 For God did not spare those Angels who sinned, but instead delivered them, as if dragged down by infernal ropes, into the torments of the underworld, to be reserved unto judgment.
5 and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, together with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the godless world;	5 And he did not spare the original world, but he preserved the eighth one, Noah, the herald of justice, bringing the flood upon the world of the impious.
6 and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (to destruction), reducing them to ashes, making them an example for the godless (people) of what is coming;	6 And he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, condemning them to be overthrown, setting them as an example to anyone who might act impiously.
7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man oppressed by the licentious conduct of unprincipled people	7 And he rescued a just man, Lot, who was oppressed by the unjust and lewd behavior of the wicked.
8 (for day after day that righteous man living among them was tormented in his righteous soul at the lawless deeds that he saw and heard),	8 For in seeing and in hearing, he was just, though he lived with those who, from day to day, crucified the just soul with works of iniquity.
9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the devout from trial and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,	9 Thus, the Lord knows how to rescue the pious from trials, and how to reserve the iniquitous for torments on the day of judgment;
10 and especially those who follow the flesh with its depraved desire and show contempt for lordship. Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to revile glorious beings,	10 even more so, those who walk after the flesh in unclean desires, and who despise proper authority. Boldly pleasing themselves, they do not dread to introduce divisions by blaspheming;
11 whereas angels, despite their superior strength and power, do not bring a reviling judgment against them from the Lord.	11 whereas the Angels, who are greater in strength and virtue, did not bring against themselves such a deplorable judgment.
12 But these people, like irrational animals born by nature for capture and destruction, revile things that they do not understand, and in their destruction they will also be destroyed,	12 Yet truly, these others, like irrational beasts, naturally fall into traps and into ruin by blaspheming whatever they do not understand, and so they shall perish in their corruption,
13 suffering wrong as payment for wrongdoing. Thinking daytime revelry a delight, they are stains and defilements as they revel in their deceits while carousing with you.	13 receiving the reward of injustice, the fruition of valuing the delights of the day: defilements and stains, overflowing with self-indulgences, taking pleasure in their feasts with you,
14 Their eyes are full of adultery and insatiable for sin. They seduce unstable people, and their hearts are trained in greed. Accursed children!	14 having eyes full of adultery and of incessant offenses, luring unstable souls, having a heart well-trained in avarice, sons of curses!
15 Abandoning the straight road, they have gone astray, following the road of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved payment for wrongdoing,	15 Abandoning the straight path, they wandered astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of iniquity.
16 but he received a rebuke for his own crime: a mute beast spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.	16 Yet truly, he had a correction of his madness: the mute animal under the yoke, which, by speaking with a human voice, forbid the folly of the prophet.
17 These people are waterless springs and mists driven by a gale; for them the gloom of darkness has been reserved.	17 These ones are like fountains without water, and like clouds stirred up by whirlwinds. For them, the mist of darkness is reserved.
18 For, talking empty bombast, they seduce with licentious desires of the flesh those who have barely escaped from people who live inerror.	18 For, speaking with the arrogance of vanity, they lure, by the desires of fleshly pleasures, those who are fleeing to some extent, who are being turned from error,
19 They promise them freedom, though they themselves are slaves of corruption, for a person is a slave of whatever overcomes him.	19 promising them freedoms, while they themselves are the servants of corruption. For by whatever a man is overcome, of this also is he the servant.
20 For if they, having escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of (our) Lord and savior Jesus Christ, again become entangled and overcome by them, their last condition is worse than their first.	20 For if, after taking refuge from the defilements of the world in the understanding of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again become entangled and overcome by these things, then the latter state becomes worse than the former.
21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment handed down to them.	21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of justice than, after acknowledging it, to turn away from that holy commandment which was handed on to them.
22 What is expressed in the true proverb has happened to them, "The dog returns to its own vomit," and "A bathed sow returns to wallowing in the mire."	22 For the truth of the proverb has happened to them: The dog has returned to his own vomit, and the washed sow has returned to her wallowing in the mud.