2 ¹ But Israel had false prophets as well as true; and you likewise will have false teachers among you. They will import disastrous heresies, disowning the very Master who bought them, and bringing swift disaster on their own heads. 2 ² They will gain many adherents to their dissolute practices, through whom the true way will be brought into disrepute. 2 ³ In their greed for money they will trade on your credulity with sheer fabrications.

But the judgement long decreed for them has not been idle; perdition waits for them with unsleeping eyes.

2 ⁴ God did not spare the angels who sinned, but consigned them to the dark pits of hell, Some witnesses read: consigned them to darkness and chains in hell. where they are reserved for judgement. 2 ⁵ He did not spare the world of old (except for Noah, preacher of righteousness, whom he preserved with seven others), but brought the deluge upon that world of godless men. 2 ⁶ The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah God burned to ashes, and condemned them to total destruction, making them an object-lesson for godless men in future days. 2 ⁷ But he rescued Lot, who was a good man, shocked by the dissolute habits of the lawless society in which he lived; 2 ⁸ day after day every sight, every sound, of their evil courses tortured that good man's heart. 2 ⁹ Thus the Lord is well able to rescue the godly out of trials, and to reserve the wicked under punishment until the day of judgement.
2 ¹⁰ Above all he will punish those who follow their abominable lusts. They flout authority; reckless and headstrong, they are not afraid to insult celestial beings, 2 ¹¹ whereas angels, for all their superior strength and might, employ no insults in seeking judgement against them before the Lord.
2 ¹² These men are like brute beasts, born in the course of nature to be caught and killed. They pour abuse upon things they do not understand; like the beasts they will perish, 2 ¹³ suffering hurt for the hurt they have inflicted. To carouse in broad daylight is their idea of pleasure; while they sit with you at table they are an ugly blot on your company, because they revel in their own deceptions. Some witnesses read: in their love-feasts. 2 ¹⁴ They have eyes for nothing but women, eyes never at rest from sin. They lure the unstable to their ruin; past masters in mercenary greed, God's curse is on them! 2 ¹⁵ They have abandoned the straight road and lost their way. They have followed in the steps of Balaam son of Beor, who consented to take pay for doing wrong, 2 ¹⁶ but had his offence brought home to him when the dumb beast spoke with a human voice and put a stop to the prophet's madness.

2 ¹⁷ These men are springs that give no water, mists driven by a storm; the place reserved for them is blackest darkness. 2 ¹⁸ They utter big, empty words, and make of sensual lusts and debauchery a bait to catch those who have barely begun to escape from their heathen environment. 2 ¹⁹ They promise them freedom, but are themselves slaves of corruption; for a man is the slave of whatever has mastered him. 2 ²⁰ They had once escaped the world's defilements through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; yet if they have entangled themselves in these all over again, and are mastered by them, their plight in the end is worse than before. 2 ²¹ How much better never to have known the right way, than, having known it, to turn back and abandon the sacred commandments delivered to them! 2 ^{22 [ Pr.26.11. ]} For them the proverb has proved true: 'The dog returns to its own vomit', and, 'The sow after a wash rolls in the mud again.'