002:001 But there were also false prophets among the people,
as there will be teachers of falsehood among you also,
who will cunningly introduce fatal divisions, disowning even
the Sovereign Lord who has redeemed them, and bringing on
themselves swift destruction.
002:002 And in their immoral ways they will have many eager disciples,
through whom religion will be brought into disrepute.
002:003 Thirsting for riches, they will trade on you with their canting talk.
From of old their judgement has been working itself out,
and their destruction has not been slumbering.
002:004 For God did not spare angels when they had sinned, but hurling
them down to Tartarus consigned them to caves of darkness,
keeping them in readiness for judgement.
002:005 And He did not spare the ancient world, although He preserved Noah,
a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought
a deluge on the world of the ungodly.
002:006 He reduced to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah,
and condemned them to overthrow, making them an example
to people who might in future be living godless lives.
002:007 But when righteous Lot was sore distressed by the gross
misconduct of immoral men He rescued him.
002:008 (For their lawless deeds were torture, day after day,
to the pure soul of that righteous man--all that he saw
and heard whilst living in their midst.)
002:009 Since all this is so, the Lord knows how to rescue godly men
from temptation, and on the other hand how to keep the unrighteous
under punishment in readiness for the Day of Judgement,
002:010 and especially those who are abandoned to sensuality--
craving, as they do, for polluted things, and scorning control.
Fool-hardy and self-willed, they do not tremble when speaking