2 Peter 2:2-4
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
2 Many will follow their licentious ways, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled.(A) 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.(B)
Lessons from the Past. 4 [a]For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but condemned them to the chains of Tartarus[b] and handed them over to be kept for judgment;(C)
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- 2:4–6 The false teachers will be punished just as surely and as severely as were the fallen angels (2 Pt 2:4; cf. Jude 6; Gn 6:1–4), the sinners of Noah’s day (2 Pt 2:5; Gn 7:21–23), and the inhabitants of the cities of the Plain (2 Pt 2:6; Jude 7; Gn 19:25). Whereas there are three examples in Jude 5–7 (Exodus and wilderness; rebellious angels; Sodom and Gomorrah), 2 Peter omitted the first of these, has inserted a new illustration about Noah (2 Pt 2:5) between Jude’s second and third examples, and listed the resulting three examples in their Old Testament order (Gn 6; 7; 19).
- 2:4 Chains of Tartarus: cf. Jude 6; other manuscripts in 2 Peter read “pits of Tartarus.” Tartarus: a term borrowed from Greek mythology to indicate the infernal regions.
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