2 Peter 2:13-15 New English Translation

¹³suffering harm as the wages for their harmful ways.^[a] By considering it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight,^[b] they are stains and blemishes, indulging^[c] in their deceitful pleasures when they feast together with you. ¹⁴Their eyes,^[d] full of adultery,^[e] never stop sinning;^[f] they entice^[g] unstable people.^[h] They have trained their hearts for greed, these cursed children!^[i] ¹⁵By forsaking the right path they have gone astray, because they followed the way of Balaam son of Bosor,^[j] who loved the wages of unrighteousness,^[k]

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Footnotes

2 Peter 2:13 tn There is a play on words in Greek, but this is difficult to express adequately in English. The verb ἀδικέω (adikeō) 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).
2 Peter 2:13 tn Grk “considering carousing in the daytime a pleasure.”
2 Peter 2:13 tn Or “carousing,” “reveling.” The participle ἐντρυφῶντες (entruphōntes) is a cognate to the noun τρυφή (truphē, “carousing”) used earlier in the verse.
2 Peter 2:14 tn Grk “having eyes.” See note on “men” at the beginning of v. 12.
2 Peter 2:14 tn Grk “full of an adulteress.”
2 Peter 2:14 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.
2 Peter 2:14 tn Grk “enticing.” See note on “men” at the beginning of v. 12.
2 Peter 2:14 tn “People” is literally “souls.” The term ψυχή (psuchē) can refer to one’s soul, one’s life, or oneself.
2 Peter 2:14 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.
2 Peter 2:15 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 NA²⁸ as well as most witnesses reads “Bosor,” an otherwise unattested form of the name of Balaam’s father. Significantly, B and א* stand out against this reading (B has Βεωρ [“Beor”] while א* reads Βεωορσορ [“Beorsor”], a nonsensical conflation of the other two variants).
2 Peter 2:15 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.

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