2 Peter 2:3

2:3 And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their ¹  condemnation pronounced long ago ²  is not sitting idly by; ³  their ⁴  destruction is not asleep.

2 Peter 2:13-15

2:13 suffering harm as the wages for their harmful ways. ⁵  By considering it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight, ⁶  they are stains and blemishes, indulging ⁷  in their deceitful pleasures when they feast together with you. 2:14 Their eyes, ⁸  full of adultery, ⁹  never stop sinning; ¹⁰  they entice ¹¹  unstable people. ¹²  They have trained their hearts for greed, these cursed children! ¹³  2:15 By forsaking the right path they have gone astray, because they followed the way of Balaam son of Bosor, ¹⁴  who loved the wages of unrighteousness, ¹⁵ 

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¹ tn Grk “to whom,” introducing a subordinate relative clause.

² tn Grk “the ancient judgment.”

³ tn Grk “is not idle.”

⁴ tn Greek has “and their.” As introducing a synonymous parallel, it is superfluous in English.

⁵ tn There is a play on words in Greek, but this is difficult to express adequately in English. The verb ἀδικέω (adikew) as a passive means “to suffer harm,” or “to suffer an injustice.” The noun ἀδικία (adikia) means “unrighteousness.” Since the Greek verb has a wider field of meaning than the English, to translate it as suffer an injustice is unwarranted, for it implicitly attributes evil to God. As R. Bauckham notes, “in English it is impossible to translate ἀδικούμενοι as a morally neutral term and ἀδικίας with a morally pejorative term, while retaining the play on words” (Jude, 2 Peter [WBC], 265).

⁶ tn Grk “considering carousing in the daytime a pleasure.”

⁷ tn Or “carousing,” “reveling.” The participle ἐντρυφῶντες (entrufwnte") is a cognate to the noun τρυφή (trufh, “carousing”) used earlier in the verse.

⁸ tn Grk “having eyes.” See note on “men” at the beginning of v. 12.

⁹ tn Grk “full of an adulteress.”

¹⁰ 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.

¹¹ tn Grk “enticing.” See note on “men” at the beginning of v. 12.

¹² tn “People” is literally “souls.” The term ψυχή (yuch) can refer to one’s soul, one’s life, or oneself.

¹³ 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.

¹⁴ 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.

¹⁵ 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.