1 B ut false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction.

But there were false teachers among the people. And there will be false teachers among you also. These people will work in secret ways to bring false teaching to you. They will turn against Christ Who bought them with His blood. They bring fast death on themselves.

2 M any will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned.

Many people will follow their wrong ways. Because of what they do, people will speak bad things against the way of truth.

3 I n covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn’t linger, and their destruction will not slumber.

They will tell lies and false stories so they can use you to get things for themselves. But God judged them long ago and their death is on the way.

4 F or if God didn’t spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;

God did not hold back from punishing the angels who sinned, but sent them down to hell. They are to be kept there in the deep hole of darkness until they stand before Him Who judges them.

5 a nd didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;

God did not hold back from punishing the people of the world who sinned long ago. He brought the flood on the world of sinners. But Noah was a preacher of right living. He and his family of seven were the only ones God saved.

6 a nd turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly;

God said that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were guilty, and He destroyed them with fire. This was to show people who did not worship God what would happen to them.

7 a nd delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked

Lot was taken away from Sodom because he was right with God. He had been troubled by the sins that bad men did in wild living.

8 ( for that righteous man dwelling among them, was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds):

He saw and heard how the people around him broke the Law. Everyday his own soul which was right with God was troubled because of their sinful ways.

9 t he Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment;

But the Lord knows how to help men who are right with God when they are tempted. He also knows how to keep the sinners suffering for their wrong-doing until the day they stand before God Who will judge them.

10 b ut chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement, and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries;

This is true about those who keep on wanting to please their own bodies in sinful desires and those who will not obey laws. They want to please themselves and are not afraid when they laugh and say bad things about the powers in heaven.

11 w hereas angels, though greater in might and power, don’t bring a railing judgment against them before the Lord.

Angels are greater in strength and power than they. But angels do not speak against these powers before the Lord.

12 B ut these, as unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant, will in their destroying surely be destroyed,

Men like this are like animals who are not able to think but are born to be caught and killed. They speak bad words against that which they do not understand. They will die in their own sinful ways.

13 r eceiving the wages of unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and defects, reveling in their deceit while they feast with you;

This is the pay they will suffer for their sinful lives. They are not ashamed when they sin in the daylight. They are sores and dirty spots among you while they eat and drink big meals with you.

14 h aving eyes full of adultery, and who can’t cease from sin; enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of cursing;

Their eyes are full of sex sins. They never have enough sin. They get weak people to go along with them. Their hearts are always wanting something. They are people who will end up in hell because

15 f orsaking the right way, they went astray, having followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of wrongdoing;

they have left the right way and have gone the wrong way. They have followed the way of Balaam, who was the son of Beor. He loved the money he got for his sin.

16 b ut he was rebuked for his own disobedience. A mute donkey spoke with a man’s voice and stopped the madness of the prophet.

But he was stopped in his sin. A donkey spoke to him with a man’s voice. It stopped this early preacher from going on in his crazy way.

17 T hese are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.

Such people are like wells without water. They are like clouds before a storm. The darkest place below has been kept for them.

18 F or, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error;

They speak big-sounding words which show they are proud. They get men who are trying to keep away from sinful men to give in to the sinful desires of the flesh.

19 p romising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for a man is brought into bondage by whoever overcomes him.

They promise that these men will be free. But they themselves are chained to sin. For a man is chained to anything that has power over him.

20 F or if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

There are men who have been made free from the sins of the world by learning to know the Lord Jesus Christ, the One Who saves. But if they do these sins again, and are not able to keep from doing them, they are worse than they were before.

21 F or it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

After knowing the holy Law that was given to them, they turned from it. It would have been better for them if they had not known how to be right with God.

22 B ut it has happened to them according to the true proverb, “The dog turns to his own vomit again,” and “the sow that has washed to wallowing in the mire.”

They are like the wise saying, “A dog turns back to what he has thrown up.” And, “A pig that has been washed goes back to roll in the mud.”