way of Balaam the son of Beor who
loved the wages of wickedness, [2:16]but had a rebuke of his
transgression; the dumb ass, speaking with a man's voice, forbade the
madness of the prophet.

5 [2:17]These are fountains without water, clouds driven by a tempest,
to which is reserved the blackness of darkness. [2:18]For speaking
extravagant words of vanity, they entice with carnal desires of
lewdness those scarcely escaped from them, those living in error,
[2:19]promising them liberty, when they themselves are servants of
corruption; for by whatever a man is overcome, to this is he made a
servant. [2:20]For if having escaped the defilements of the world by a
knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again
entangled and overcome by them, the last state of those persons is
worse than the first. [2:21]For it is better for them not to have
known the way of righteousness, than, having known, to turn from the
holy commandment delivered to them. [2:22] But it has happened to them
according to the true proverb, The dog returned to his vomit, and the
swine that was washed to wallowing in filth.

CHAPTER II.

THE COMING OF CHRIST, ETC.

1 [3:1]THIS second epistle, beloved, I now write to you, in which I
excite your pure minds by remembrance, [3:2]to remember the words
spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandment of us the
apostles of the Lord and Saviour, [3:3] knowing this first, that in the
last days scoffers shall come with scoffing walking after their
inordinate desires, [3:4]and saying, Where is the promise of his
coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they
were from the beginning of the world. [3:5]For of this they are
willingly ignorant, that the heavens were of old, and the earth was
made of water and by water by the word of God, [3:6]by which the world
that then was, being overflowed with water, was destroyed. [3:7]But the
present heavens and the earth have been preserved by his word, being
kept for fire, at the day of the judgment and destruction of wicked men.

2 [3:8]But let not this one thing escape you, beloved, that one day
with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
[3:9]The Lord is not slow in respect to his promise, as some men
account slowness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to a change of mind.

3 [3:10]But the day of the Lord will come as a thief, in which