2:1 But false prophets arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. 1 These false teachers 2 will 3 infiltrate your midst 4 with destructive heresies, 5 even to the point of 6 denying the Master who bought them. As a result, they will bring 7 swift destruction on themselves. 2:2 And many will follow their debauched lifestyles. 8 Because of these false teachers, 9 the way of truth will be slandered. 10 2:3 And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their 11 condemnation pronounced long ago 12 is not sitting idly by; 13 their 14 destruction is not asleep.
2:4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, 15 but threw them into hell 16 and locked them up 17 in chains 18 in utter darkness, 19 to be kept until the judgment, 2:5 and if he did not spare the ancient world, but did protect Noah, a herald of righteousness, along with seven others, 20 when God 21 brought a flood on an ungodly world, 22 2:6 and if he turned to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah when he condemned them to destruction, 23 having appointed 24 them to serve as an example 25 to future generations of the ungodly, 26 2:7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man in anguish over the debauched lifestyle of lawless 27 men, 28 2:8 (for while he lived among them day after day, that righteous man was tormented in his righteous soul 29 by the lawless deeds he saw and heard 30 ) 2:9 – if so, 31 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from their trials, 32 and to reserve the unrighteous for punishment 33 at the day of judgment, 2:10 especially those who indulge their fleshly desires 34 and who despise authority.
Brazen and insolent, 35 they are not afraid to insult 36 the glorious ones, 37 2:11 yet even 38 angels, who are much more powerful, 39 do not bring a slanderous 40 judgment against them before the Lord. 41