Study Desk

But ^(a)false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be ^(b)false teachers ^(c)among you, who will ^(d)secretly introduce ^(e)destructive heresies, even ^(f)denying the ^(g)Master who ^(h)bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

Many will follow their ⁽ⁱ⁾sensuality, and because of them ^(j)the way of the truth will be ^(k)maligned;

and in their ^(l)greed they will ^(m)exploit you with ⁽ⁿ⁾false words; ^(o)their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

For ^(p)if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and ^(q)committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;

and did not spare ^(r)the ancient world, but preserved ^(s)Noah, a ^[a]preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a ^(t)flood upon the world of the ungodly;

and if He ^(u)condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an ^(v)example to those who would ^(w)live ungodly lives thereafter;

and if He ^(x)rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the ^(y)sensual conduct of ^(z)unprincipled men

(for by what he saw and heard that ^(aa)righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds),

^(ab)then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from ^[b]temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the ^(ac)day of judgment,

and especially those who ^[c](ad)indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and ^(ae)despise authority. Daring, ^(af)self-willed, they do not tremble when they ^(ag)revile angelic ^[d]majesties,

^(ah)whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.

But ^(ai)these, like unreasoning animals, ^(aj)born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in ^[e]the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed,

suffering wrong as ^(ak)the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to ^(al)revel in the ^(am)daytime. They are stains and blemishes, ^(an)reveling in their ^[f]deceptions, as they ^(ao)carouse with you,

having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, ^(ap)enticing ^(aq)unstable souls, having a heart trained in ^(ar)greed, ^(as)accursed children;

forsaking ^(at)the right way, they have gone astray, having followed ^(au)the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved ^(av)the wages of unrighteousness;

but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, ^(aw)for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.

These are ^(ax)springs without water and mists driven by a storm, ^(ay)for whom the ^[g]black darkness has been reserved.

For speaking out ^(az)arrogant words of ^(ba)vanity they ^(bb)entice by fleshly desires, by ^(bc)sensuality, those who barely ^(bd)escape from the ones who live in error,

promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for ^(be)by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.

For if, after they have ^(bf)escaped the defilements of the world by ^(bg)the knowledge of the ^(bh)Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again ^(bi)entangled in them and are overcome, ^(bj)the last state has become worse for them than the first.

^(bk)For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from ^(bl)the holy commandment ^(bm)handed on to them.

^[h]It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "^(bn)A dog returns to its own vomit ," and, "A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire."