2:1 But false prophets arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. 1 These false teachers 2 will 3 infiltrate your midst 4 with destructive heresies, 5 even to the point of 6 denying the Master who bought them. As a result, they will bring 7 swift destruction on themselves. 2:2 And many will follow their debauched lifestyles. 8 Because of these false teachers, 9 the way of truth will be slandered. 10 2:3 And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their 11 condemnation pronounced long ago 12 is not sitting idly by; 13 their 14 destruction is not asleep.
2:17 These men 36 are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm, for whom the utter depths of darkness 37 have been reserved. 2:18 For by speaking high-sounding but empty words 38 they are able to entice, 39 with fleshly desires and with debauchery, 40 people 41 who have just escaped 42 from those who reside in error. 43 2:19 Although these false teachers promise 44 such people 45 freedom, they themselves are enslaved to 46 immorality. 47 For whatever a person succumbs to, to that he is enslaved. 48 2:20 For if after they have escaped the filthy things 49 of the world through the rich knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, 50 they 51 again get entangled in them and succumb to them, 52 their last state has become worse for them than their first. 2:21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them. 2:22 They are illustrations of this true proverb: 53 “A dog returns to its own vomit,” 54 and “A sow, after washing herself, 55 wallows in the mire.” 56