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.
2:4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, 15 but threw them into hell 16 and locked them up 17 in chains 18 in utter darkness, 19 to be kept until the judgment, 2:5 and if he did not spare the ancient world, but did protect Noah, a herald of righteousness, along with seven others, 20 when God 21 brought a flood on an ungodly world, 22 2:6 and if he turned to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah when he condemned them to destruction, 23 having appointed 24 them to serve as an example 25 to future generations of the ungodly, 26 2:7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man in anguish over the debauched lifestyle of lawless 27 men, 28