2 peter 2 (NMV)
1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
2 Many will follow their immoral ways, and because of them the way of the truth will be slandered.
3 In their greed, they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but hurled them into Tartarus [the deepest, blackest place of judgment] to be kept under restraint until the day of judgment,
5 and if He did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;
6 and if He reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, condemning them to ruin, making them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;
7 and if He rescued righteous Lot, who was deeply distressed by the depraved behavior of lawless people,
8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard),
9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
10 especially those who go after the flesh in defiling lusts and who despise authority. Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to speak disrespectfully of heavenly beings,
11 whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring slanderous judgment against them before the Lord.
12 But these people, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed, speak blasphemously about things they do not understand. They will be destroyed in their corruption,
13 receiving the penalty of wrongdoing. They consider it pleasure to indulge in self-gratification in broad daylight. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceit as they feast with you.
14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They seduce unstable souls. They have hearts trained in a desire for more than God has provided for them. They are cursed children.
15 They have left the straight path and gone astray, following the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the reward of doing evil.
16 But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing, a speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. The deepest darkness has been reserved for them.
18 For by speaking arrogant nonsense, they entice people who are barely escaping from those who live in error, by appealing to fleshly desires and unrestrained immorality.
19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by whatever someone is defeated, by that he is enslaved.
20 For if, after escaping the corruptions of the world through the full knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled and defeated by them, 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 command delivered to them.
22 What has happened to them confirms the truth of this proverb: "A dog returns to its own vomit", and, "A washed pig returns to wallowing in the mud."