2 Peter 2:14

2:14 Their eyes,¹ full of adultery,² never stop sinning;³ they entice⁴ unstable people.⁵ They have trained their hearts for greed, these cursed children!⁶

2 Peter 2:18-20

2:18 For by speaking high-sounding but empty words⁷ they are able to entice,⁸ with fleshly desires and with debauchery,⁹ people¹⁰ who have just escaped¹¹ from those who reside in error.¹² 2:19 Although these false teachers promise¹³ such people¹⁴ freedom, they themselves are enslaved to¹⁵ immorality.¹⁶ For whatever a person succumbs to, to that he is enslaved.¹⁷ 2:20 For if after they have escaped the filthy things¹⁸ of the world through the rich knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,¹⁹ they²⁰ again get entangled in them and succumb to them,²¹ their last state has become worse for them than their first.

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

²tn Grk “full of an adulteress.”

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

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

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

⁶tn 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.

⁷tn Grk “high-sounding words of futility.”

⁸tn Grk “they entice.”

⁹tn Grk “with the lusts of the flesh, with debauchery.”

¹⁰tn Grk “those.”

¹¹tn Or “those who are barely escaping.”

¹²tn Or “deceit.”

¹³tn Verse 19 is a subordinate clause in Greek. The masculine nominative participle “promising” (ἐπαγγελλόμενοι, epangellomenoi) refers back to the subject of vv. 17-18. At the same time, it functions subordinately to the following participle, ὑπάρχοντες (Juparconte", “while being”).

¹⁴tn Grk “them.”

¹⁵tn Grk “slaves of.” See the note on the word “slave” in 1:1.

¹⁶tn Or “corruption,” “depravity.” Verse 19 constitutes a subordinate clause to v. 18 in Greek. The main verbal components of these two verses are: “uttering…they entice…promising…being (enslaved).” The main verb is (they) entice. The three participles are adverbial and seem to indicate an instrumental relation (by uttering), a concessive relation (although promising), and a temporal relation (while being [enslaved]). For the sake of English usage, in the translation of the text this is broken down into two sentences.

¹⁷tn Grk “for by what someone is overcome, to this he is enslaved.”

¹⁸tn Grk “defilements”; “contaminations”; “pollutions.”

¹⁹sn Through the rich knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The implication is not that these people necessarily knew the Lord (in the sense of being saved), but that they were in the circle of those who had embraced Christ as Lord and Savior.

²⁰tn Grk “(and/but) they.”

²¹tn Grk “they again, after becoming entangled in them, are overcome by them.”