13 suffering wrong as (A)the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to (B)revel in the (C)daytime. They are stains and blemishes, (D)reveling in their [a]deceptions as they (E)feast with you, 14 having eyes full of adultery [b]that never cease from sin, (F)enticing (G)unstable souls, having hearts trained in (H)greed, (I)accursed children; 15 abandoning (J)the right way, they have gone astray, having followed (K)the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved (L)the [c]reward of unrighteousness; 16 but he received a rebuke for his own offense, (M)for a mute donkey, speaking with a human voice, restrained the insanity of the prophet.

17 These are (N)springs without water and mists driven by a storm, (O)for whom the [d]black darkness has been reserved. 18 For, while speaking out (P)arrogant words of no (Q)value they (R)entice by fleshly desires, by (S)indecent behavior, those who barely (T)escape from the ones who live in error, 19 promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for (U)by what anyone is overcome, by this he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they have (V)escaped the defilements of the world by (W)the knowledge of the (X)Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again (Y)entangled in them and are overcome, (Z)the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 (AA)For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from (AB)the holy commandment (AC)handed on to them. 22 [e]It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “(AD)A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Peter 2:13 One early ms love feasts
  2. 2 Peter 2:14 Lit and unceasing from sin
  3. 2 Peter 2:15 Or wages
  4. 2 Peter 2:17 Lit blackness of darkness
  5. 2 Peter 2:22 Lit The thing of the true proverb has happened to them

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