2 Peter 2

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
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, 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 wil copy their debauched behaviour, and the Way of Truth wil be brought into disrepute on theiraccount.	2 And many persons will follow their indulgences; through such persons, the way of truth will be blasphemed.
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 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 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 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 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 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 He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by reducing them to ashes as a warning to futuresinners;	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 but rescued Lot, an upright man who had been sickened by the debauched way in which these vilepeople behaved-	7 And he rescued a just man, Lot, who was oppressed by the unjust and lewd behavior 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 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 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 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 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 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 but the angels in their greater strength and power make no complaint or accusation against them inthe Lord's presence.	11 whereas the Angels, who are greater in strength and virtue, did not bring against themselves such a deplorable 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 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 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 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 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 incessant offenses, luring unstable souls, having a heart well-trained in avarice, sons of curses!
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 Abandoning the straight path, they wandered astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, 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 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 People like this are dried-up springs, fogs swirling in the wind, and the gloom of darkness is stored upfor them.	17 These ones are like fountains without water, and like clouds stirred up by whirlwinds. For them, 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 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 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 freedoms, while they themselves are the servants of corruption. For by whatever a man is overcome, of this also is he the servant.
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, 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 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 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 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 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.