2 Peter 2

NEW JERUSALEM	DOUAI-RHEIMS
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.	1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there shall be among you lying teachers, who shall bring in sects of perdition, and deny the Lord who bought them: bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
2 Many wil copy their debauched behaviour, and the Way of Truth wil be brought into disrepute on theiraccount.	2 And many shall follow their riotousnesses, through whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
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.	3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you. Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their perdition slumbereth not.
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.	4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them, drawn down by infernal ropes to the lower hell, unto torments, to be reserved unto judgment:
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.	5 And spared not the original world, but preserved Noe, the eighth person, the preacher of justice, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.
6 He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by reducing them to ashes as a warning to futuresinners;	6 And reducing the cities of the Sodomites, and of the Gomorrhites, into ashes, condemned them to be overthrown, making them an example to those that should after act wickedly.
7 but rescued Lot, an upright man who had been sickened by the debauched way in which these vilepeople behaved-	7 And delivered just Lot, oppressed by the injustice and lewd conversation of the wicked.
8 for that upright man, living among them, was outraged in his upright soul by the crimes that he saw andheard every day.	8 For in sight and hearing he was just: dwelling among them, who from day to day vexed the just soul with unjust works.
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,	9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly from temptation, but to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be tormented.
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,	10 And especially them who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government, audacious, self willed, they fear not to bring in sects, blaspheming.
11 but the angels in their greater strength and power make no complaint or accusation against them inthe Lord's presence.	11 Whereas angels who are greater in strength and power, bring not against themselves a railing judgment.
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.	12 But these men, as irrational beasts, naturally tending to the snare and to destruction, blaspheming those things which they know not, shall perish in their corruption,
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;	13 Receiving the reward of their injustice, counting for a pleasure the delights of a day: stains and spots, sporting themselves to excess, rioting in their feasts with you:
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.	14 Having eyes full of adultery and of sin that ceaseth not: alluring unstable souls, having their heart exercised with covetousness, children of malediction:
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:	15 Leaving the right way they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam of Bosor, who loved the wages of iniquity,
16 a dumb beast of burden, speaking with a human voice, put a stop to the madness of the prophet.	16 But had a check of his madness, the dumb beast used to the yoke, which speaking with man's voice, forbade the folly of the prophet.
17 People like this are dried-up springs, fogs swirling in the wind, and the gloom of darkness is stored upfor them.	17 These are fountains without water, and clouds tossed with whirlwinds, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved.
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.	18 For, speaking proud words of vanity, they allure by the desires of fleshly riotousness, those who for a little while escape, such as converse in error:
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;	19 Promising them liberty, whereas they themselves are the slaves of corruption. For by whom a man is overcome, of the same also he is the slave.
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.	20 For if, flying from the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they be again entangled in them and overcome: their latter state is become unto them worse than the former.
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.	21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of justice, than after they have known it, to turn back from that holy commandment which was delivered to them.
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.	22 For, that of the true proverb has happened to them: The dog is returned to his vomit: and, The sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire.