1. There were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will introduce destructive heresies and even deny the Master who ransomed them, bringing swift destruction on themselves.
2. Many will follow their licentious ways, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled.
3. In their greed they will exploit you with fabrications, but from of old their condemnation has not been idle and their destruction does not sleep.
4. For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but condemned them to the chains of Tartarus and handed them over to be kept for judgment;
5. and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, together with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the godless world;
6. and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah [to destruction], reducing them to ashes, making them an example for the godless [people] of what is coming;
7. and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man oppressed by the licentious conduct of unprincipled people
8. (for day after day that righteous man living among them was tormented in his righteous soul at the lawless deeds that he saw and heard),
9. then the Lord knows how to rescue the devout from trial and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
10. and especially those who follow the flesh with its depraved desire and show contempt for lordship. Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to revile glorious beings,