2 Peter 2:3
What does 2 Peter 2:3 mean?
A plain-English look at 2 Peter 2:3 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What 2 Peter 2:3 means
Greed fuels these teachers. With crafted, persuasive stories, they turn believers into commodities—flocks to fleece rather than souls to serve. Yet their verdict is not delayed. God’s sentence has long been pronounced against such exploitation; it is not sleeping. Divine patience is not divine indifference. The Lord’s justice moves in his timing, but it moves. Peter thus unmasks motive and outcome: their rhetoric may be smooth and their platform large, but their ministry is a marketplace and their end is destruction, because they treat God’s people as merchandise rather than God’s possession.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000And in covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose sentence now from of old lingereth not, and their destruction slumbereth not.
KJV
King James Version · 1611And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901And in covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose sentence now from of old lingereth not, and their destruction slumbereth not.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949And in their desire for profit they will come to you with words of deceit, like traders doing business in souls: whose punishment has been ready for a long time and their destruction is watching for them.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862and in covetousness, with moulded words, of you they shall make merchandise, whose judgment of old is not idle, and their destruction doth not slumber.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you. Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not: and their perdition slumbereth not.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890And through covetousness, with well-turned words, will they make merchandise of you: for whom judgment of old is not idle, and their destruction slumbers not.
Context
Peter completes his initial diagnosis: secret heresies (v.1), sensual influence (v.2), and financial exploitation (v.3). To steady believers who might be shaken by the teachers’ present success, he insists judgment is sure. To prove this, he turns in verses 4–9 to a triad of examples—fallen angels, the Flood, and Sodom and Gomorrah—showing a consistent pattern in God’s dealings: he does not spare the wicked, yet he knows how to preserve his own.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Isaiah 30:13
therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly in an instant.
- 2 Corinthians 12:17
Did I take advantage of you by any one of them whom I have sent unto you?
- 1 Thessalonians 5:3
When they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in no wise escape.
- Psalms 18:44
As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me; The foreigners shall submit themselves unto me.
- Jude 1:4
For there are certain men crept in privily, even they who were of old written of beforehand unto this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
- Isaiah 56:11
Yea, the dogs are greedy, they can never have enough; and these are shepherds that cannot understand: they have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter.
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