2 Peter 2 - First Nations Version

A WARNING ABOUT FALSE TEACHERS

¹ But just as there were false prophets among the people of tribes of Wrestles with Creator (Israel), there will also be false teachers among you. They will sneak into your gatherings and teach things that are harmful to our spiritual ways. They will even deny the Honored One who paid a great price to set them free. In doing so, they will quickly bring ruin down on their own heads.

² Many will follow their shameful ways, and because of them the way of truth will be spoken against.

³ Because of their greed, they will use made-up stories to prey on you for their own gain. Their punishment for this that was spoken of long ago is not sleeping. It is still coming and will not fail to bring them to a bad end.

EXAMPLES FROM THE PAST

⁴ The Great Spirit did not take pity on spirit-messengers who were guilty of wrongdoing. He banished them into the dark caves of the underworld, to be held there until the time comes for their fate to be decided.

⁵ Neither did he spare the ancient world when he sent a great flood to cleanse the world from evil. But along with seven others he spared One Who Rests (Noah), who told others about Creator’s right ways.

⁶ Creator decided that the people of Village of Bad Spirits (Sodom) and the people of Village of Deep Fear (Gomorrah) needed to be punished for their evil ways. So he covered them with burning ashes. He left those ruined villages as a warning for all who would walk in evil ways.

⁷ But he rescued Covers His Head (Lot), a good-hearted man living among them, who was deeply troubled by the people who had given themselves over to their bad hearts and evil ways.

⁸ The soul of this good man was tormented day after day by the evil things he saw and heard.

WARNINGS ABOUT BAD-HEARTED ONES

⁹ So then, all of these stories show us that the Honored One knows how to rescue his holy ones from trouble and hold the bad-hearted ones captive until the day comes when he will decide their punishment.

¹⁰ This is true most of all for those who give themselves over to their bad-hearted, corrupt desires and who have no respect for authority. These bad-hearted ones are reckless, stubborn, and puffed up with pride. They do not even tremble with respect when they speak evil against spirit-beings of shining-greatness.

¹¹ Even so the spirit-messengers, who are greater in strength and power, do not accuse these bad-hearted ones or speak evil of them before our Honored Chief.

¹² But these people act without thinking. They are like wild animals born to be captured and killed. They speak against things they know nothing about, but they will be captured in their own cages and come to a bad end.

¹³ In this way, they will suffer for the wrongs they have done. It makes their hearts glad to run wild in the light of day. They are dark spots and stains on your garments, gladly feasting with you while deep inside they laugh about how they have tricked you.

¹⁴ They are always looking for someone willing to be unfaithful in marriage. They lure weak souls into their evil ways. Their hearts are well trained to want more and more. They are children living a cursed life,

¹⁵ who have left the good road to walk a path of lies. They have followed in the footsteps of People Destroyer (Balaam), the son of Burning Man (Beor), who loved the things he could gain from wrongdoing.

¹⁶ But a donkey, which cannot talk, spoke with a human voice and gave him a good tongue-lashing, turning the prophet away from his madness.

¹⁷ These bad-hearted ones are like dried-up watering holes and clouds that scatter and melt in the wind. A place of deep darkness is kept ready for them.

¹⁸ With empty boasts and puffed-up words, they prey on people’s weak human desires and lure them back into the wrong ways of those they have just escaped from.

¹⁹ They promise them freedom, but they are themselves slaves to evil desires, for people are slaves to whatever controls them.

BAD HEARTS LEAD TO A BAD END

²⁰ What would happen to those who, after being set free from the shameful ways of the world through knowing our Honored Chief and Sacred Deliverer, Creator Sets Free (Jesus) the Chosen One, were to be overcome by these ways and to choose to walk once again on that bad path? If that happened, they would be in a worse place than they were at first.

²¹ It would have been better if they had never known about the good road than, after learning about it, to walk away from the sacred teaching that was handed down to them.

²² They have proved the truth of these wise sayings: “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A pig after being washed goes back to wallowing in the mud.”