1 Yet false prophets also arose among the people, and in like fashion false teachers will be among you, who will smuggle in destructive heresies and, by denying the Master {despotes, Absolute Owner} who bought them, bring upon themselves swift destruction {apoleia, utter ruin}.
2 Many will imitate their shameless immorality {aselgeia: unrestrained behavior}, and because of them the way of truth will be slandered {blasphemeo: spoken against}.
3 And in greed they will exploit {emporeuomai: selfishly use} you with fabricated words {plastos: artfully invented}; their judgment from long ago is not delayed, and their destruction does not slumber.
4 For if God {theos, Righteous Judge} did not spare angels when they sinned {hamartesanton: willful disobedience}, but cast them into Tartarus and committed them to chains of darkness, keeping them for judgment,
5 And He {Theos, Righteous Judge} showed no mercy to the ancient world, but He upheld Noah, the eighth herald {keryx: public messenger} of righteousness, when He brought the flood upon the ungodly world.
6 And having turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, He {Theos, Righteous Judge} condemned them by means of destruction {katastrophe: overwhelming ruin}, setting their fate as an example for those who would live ungodly lives.
7 And He {Theos, Delivering Judge} rescued righteous Lot {Lot: spared from ruin}, being oppressed by the sensual conduct of the lawless.
8 For by sight{blemati: what he saw} and by hearing, that righteous man, living among them, was tormenting his righteous soul{psychen: inner life} day after day with their lawless deeds.
9 The Lord {Kyrios, Wise Deliverer} knows how to rescue the godly {eusebeis: reverently devoted} from trial, and how to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.
10 Especially those who pursue the flesh in the desire of defilement{miasmos: polluting impurity} and who despise authority{kyriotes: rightful rule}, impious and arrogant, blaspheming the glorious ones.
11 Whereas angels {angeloi: heavenly messengers}, though greater in strength and power, do not bring a blasphemous {blasphemon: reviling} judgment against them.
12 But these, like irrational creatures {aloga: devoid of reason}, born by nature for ensnarement and ruin, uttering slanders {blasphemountes: speaking evil} against what they do not grasp, will be destroyed in their own corruption.
13 They suffer wrong as the reward of unrighteousness, counting it pleasure {hedone: sensual indulgence} to indulge in daytime luxury; they are spots {spiloi: moral stains} and blemishes, enjoying themselves in their deceptions while they feast with you.
14 Having eyes full of adultery and never ceasing to sin, enticing unstable souls; having a heart trained in covetousness {pleonexia: greedy desire}, children of a curse {katara: divine condemnation}.
15 Having abandoned the straight way, they went astray, following the way of Balaam {Balaam: corrupt prophet} son of Bosor, who loved the wage of unrighteousness {adikias: moral wrongdoing}.
16 But he received a rebuke {elegxis: stern correction} for his own transgression; a mute beast of burden, speaking with the voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet {prophetes: covenant spokesman}.
17 These are springs {pegai: dry deceptive sources} without water and mists driven by a storm; for them the gloom {zophos: deep shadowy gloom} of darkness has been reserved.
18 For, uttering overinflated claims {hyperogka: pompous assertions} marked by empty futility {mataiotetos: pointless emptiness}, they entice through fleshly desires and acts of sensuality those who are only just escaping from those living in error.
19 Promising freedom to them, they themselves are slaves {doulos: completely controlled} of corruption {phthora: moral decay}, for whatever overcomes a person, by this also he is enslaved.
20 For if, after having escaped the pollutions {miasmata: moral defilements} of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ {Kyrios kai Soter Iesous Christos, Faithful Redeeming Judge}, they again become entangled in these things and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
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 {entole: authoritative directive} delivered {paradotheises: entrusted responsibility} to them.
22 What has happened to them matches the true proverb {paroimia: instructive saying}: “A dog {kyon: despised scavenger} returns to its own vomit, and a sow, after washing, goes back to wallow in the mire.”