2 Peter 2:14-15

2:14 Their eyes, ¹  full of adultery, ²  never stop sinning; ³  they entice ⁴  unstable people. ⁵  They have trained their hearts for greed, these cursed children! ⁶  2:15 By forsaking the right path they have gone astray, because they followed the way of Balaam son of Bosor, ⁷  who loved the wages of unrighteousness, ⁸ 

2 Peter 2:18

2:18 For by speaking high-sounding but empty words ⁹  they are able to entice, ¹⁰  with fleshly desires and with debauchery, ¹¹  people ¹²  who have just escaped ¹³  from those who reside in error. ¹⁴ 

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¹ tn Grk “having eyes.” See note on “men” at the beginning of v. 12.

² tn Grk “full of an adulteress.”

³ tn Grk “and unceasing from sin.” Some translate this “insatiable for sin,” but such a translation is based on a textual variant with inadequate support.

⁴ tn Grk “enticing.” See note on “men” at the beginning of v. 12.

⁵ tn “People” is literally “souls.” The term ψυχή (yuch) can refer to one’s soul, one’s life, or oneself.

⁶ tn Grk “having hearts trained in greediness, children of cursing.” The participles continue the general description of the false teachers, without strong grammatical connection. The genitive κατάρας (kataras, “of cursing”) is taken attributively here.

⁷ tn Although many modern translations (e.g., NASB, TEV, NIV, CEV, NLT) read “Beor” here, this is due to harmonization with the OT rather than following a variant textual reading. The Greek text of NA²⁷ reads “Bosor,” an otherwise unattested form of the name of Balaam’s father.

⁸ tn “Wages of unrighteousness” in Greek is the same expression found in v. 13, “wages for harmful ways.” The repetition makes the link between the false teachers and Balaam more concrete.

⁹ tn Grk “high-sounding words of futility.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “they entice.”

¹¹ tn Grk “with the lusts of the flesh, with debauchery.”

¹² tn Grk “those.”

¹³ tn Or “those who are barely escaping.”

¹⁴ tn Or “deceit.”