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InterlinearVerse GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOB JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM PSA AMOS HOS 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR PROV ECC SNG JOEL MIC ISA ZEP HAB JER LAM YNA (JNA) NAH OBA DAN EZE EZRA EST NEH HAG ZEC MAL LAO GES LES ESG DNG 2 PS TOB JDT WIS SIR BAR LJE PAZ SUS BEL MAN 1 MAC 2 MAC 3 MAC 4 MAC YHN (JHN) MARK MAT LUKE ACTs YAC (JAM) GAL 1 TH 2 TH 1 COR 2 COR ROM COL PHM EPH PHP 1 TIM TIT 1 PET 2 PET 2 TIM HEB YUD (JUD) 1 YHN (1 JHN) 2 YHN (2 JHN) 3 YHN (3 JHN) REV
2 Pet 2 V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V7 V8 V9 V10 V11 V12 V13 V15 V16 V17 V18 V19 V20 V21 V22
OET (OET-LV) having eyes full of_adulteress, and unceasing from_sin, enticing unstable souls, having a_heart having_been_trained in_greediness, children of_a_curse,
OET (OET-RV) Their eyes are full of lust for adultery and never cease to sin, and having trained their hearts in greed they entice unstable people to become their cursed offspring.
In this section, Peter warned the people who read his letter against false teachers who behaved wickedly and who would try to encourage believers to behave in the same immoral way as they did. But God would certainly destroy these false teachers.
Many of the verses in this section are similar to verses in Jude’s letter. Whoever wrote second, Peter or Jude, may have had a copy of the other one’s letter and used words and ideas out of that letter. Or perhaps someone else had written something with similar words and ideas in it, and Peter and Jude both used words and ideas from that writing. Why these two letters are so similar is not the most important thing. But if you have already translated Jude, it is important to have that translation open in front of you while you are studying and translating this section of 2 Peter. However be careful not to copy any verse exactly from Jude’s letter to your translation of 2 Peter, because there are differences between them which must remain in your translation.
The false teachers’ main pleasure was to feast and to get as much of food, things to drink, and sex as they wanted. It is bad to behave this way at any time, but these people were so shameless they didn’t even try to hide what they were doing by waiting until night. Instead they were doing these things in the daytime, when everyone could see them behaving in such a way. So the false teachers brought shame on the Christians when they joined them for meals together.
Peter compared the false teachers to the prophet Balaam. Read the story of Balaam in Numbers 22–24. Balak, the king of the country of Moab, offered to reward Balaam if he would curse the people of Israel. Balaam was greedy to get the reward which Balak had offered him. That is why he tried three times to curse the people of Israel, even though he knew God didn’t want him to do it. But each time he tried to curse the people of Israel, he failed, because God caused him to bless them instead.
When Balaam was first going to Balak, God sent his angel to block Balaam’s way. Balaam could not see the angel, but the donkey he was riding could see him and refused to go on. Balaam then beat the donkey, and so God gave the donkey the ability to speak and it protested against the unfair way that Balaam had treated it.
Their eyes are full of adultery;
They are always looking for a woman who will have sex/sleep with them.
They never think of anything except committing adultery.
Their eyes are full of adultery: The literal meaning of the Greek is “eyes full of an adulteress.” This may mean:
They are always looking for a woman who is willing to have sex with them, or
They cannot look at any woman without wanting to have sex with her.
It is recommended that you follow the first interpretation (1).
their desire for sin is never satisfied;
They never rest from doing bad things.
their desire for sin is never satisfied: They never get tired of sinning. Here is another way to translate this:
they never stop sinning (NIV)
they seduce the unstable.
They deceive people who do not strongly trust Christ, and they lead them to sin.
They deceive people who do not understand well what they believe about Christ and persuade them to behave in the bad way they themselves do.
they seduce the unstable: Because of the wrong things they were teaching and the way they were behaving, these false teachers persuaded people who were not strong Christians to give up the true way Christ taught them to live and to follow them in the wrong way. Some other ways to translate “unstable people” are “people who are not sure about what they believe about Jesus,” or “people who quickly change their thinking,” or “people whose loyalty to Christ is weak.”
They are accursed children
Because of all the bad things they do, God has cursed these people.
Because of all the bad things they do, God will punish these people.
accursed children: Literally the Greek says “children of a curse.” This is a way of saying they are people whom God has cursed. What Peter implied by these words is that these false teachers were extremely wicked, so wicked that God had cursed them. People usually think it is wrong to curse anyone. But this verse does not mean that God has done something wrong. It means that God has declared that these people will go to hell and he will punish them there because they have sinned against him. You must translate these words carefully. If in your language the word for cursing always means doing something evil, it would be better to say “God will punish them.”
with hearts trained in greed.
They have taught themselves to be very greedy.
They have become very greedy indeed.
hearts trained in greed: The literal meaning of the Greek is “having been trained in greed.” The verb “to train” usually refers to a person training himself for a race. Here these false teachers trained themselves to become more and more greedy.
greed: This means “desiring too strongly to have more and more of something.”
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / metonymy
ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔχοντες μεστοὺς μοιχαλίδος
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: ὀφθαλμούς ἔχοντες μεστούς μοιχαλίδος καί ἀκαταπαύστους ἁμαρτίας δελεάζοντες ψυχάς ἀστηρίκτους καρδίαν γεγυμνασμένην πλεονεξίας ἔχοντες κατάρας τέκνα)
Here, eyes refers to a person’s desires, and eyes full means that a person constantly desires one thing. Alternate translation: [constantly desiring an adulteress]
ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔχοντες μεστοὺς μοιχαλίδος
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: ὀφθαλμούς ἔχοντες μεστούς μοιχαλίδος καί ἀκαταπαύστους ἁμαρτίας δελεάζοντες ψυχάς ἀστηρίκτους καρδίαν γεγυμνασμένην πλεονεξίας ἔχοντες κατάρας τέκνα)
This clause could mean: (1) the false teachers constantly desired to have immoral sexual relations with any woman they saw, thereby viewing every women as a potential adulteress. Alternate translation: [constantly desiring women with whom to commit adultery] (2) the false teachers were constantly looking for immoral women with whom to have immoral sexual relations. Alternate translation: [constantly seeking sexually immoral women]
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
δελεάζοντες ψυχὰς ἀστηρίκτους
enticing (Some words not found in SR-GNT: ὀφθαλμούς ἔχοντες μεστούς μοιχαλίδος καί ἀκαταπαύστους ἁμαρτίας δελεάζοντες ψυχάς ἀστηρίκτους καρδίαν γεγυμνασμένην πλεονεξίας ἔχοντες κατάρας τέκνα)
This clause refers to the actions of the false teachers Peter introduced in [2:1](../02/01.md). If it would be helpful in your language, you could express this explicitly. Alternate translation: [these false teachers entice unstable souls]
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / synecdoche
δελεάζοντες ψυχὰς ἀστηρίκτους
enticing (Some words not found in SR-GNT: ὀφθαλμούς ἔχοντες μεστούς μοιχαλίδος καί ἀκαταπαύστους ἁμαρτίας δελεάζοντες ψυχάς ἀστηρίκτους καρδίαν γεγυμνασμένην πλεονεξίας ἔχοντες κατάρας τέκνα)
Here, souls refers to persons. Alternate translation: [enticing unstable people]
Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
καρδίαν γεγυμνασμένην πλεονεξίας ἔχοντες
˓a˒_heart ˓having_been˒_trained ˱in˲_greediness having
This clause refers to the actions of the false teachers Peter introduced in [2:1](../02/01.md). If it would be helpful in your language, you could express this explicitly. Alternate translation: [they have hearts trained in covetousness]
Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / activepassive
καρδίαν γεγυμνασμένην πλεονεξίας ἔχοντες
˓a˒_heart ˓having_been˒_trained ˱in˲_greediness having
If your language does not use this passive form, you can express this with an active form, and you can state who did the action. Alternate translation: [they trained their hearts to be covetous]
Note 6 topic: figures-of-speech / metonymy
καρδίαν γεγυμνασμένην πλεονεξίας ἔχοντες
˓a˒_heart ˓having_been˒_trained ˱in˲_greediness having
Peter is using hearts to refer to whole persons, including their thoughts, desires, and emotions. The term can thus be translated here with the reflexive pronoun “themselves.” Alternate translation: [having trained themselves to covet]
Note 7 topic: figures-of-speech / abstractnouns
καρδίαν γεγυμνασμένην πλεονεξίας ἔχοντες
˓a˒_heart ˓having_been˒_trained ˱in˲_greediness having
If it would be helpful in your language, you could express the idea behind the abstract noun covetousness with a verb. Alternate translation: [having training their hearts to covet]
Note 8 topic: figures-of-speech / idiom
κατάρας τέκνα
˱of˲_˓a˒_curse children
Peter is using a Hebrew idiom in which a person is said to be a “child” of the thing that characterizes that person. Here, children of cursing refers to people who are cursed by God. He is not speaking of people who curse others. Alternate translation: [accursed people]
Note 9 topic: figures-of-speech / exclamations
κατάρας τέκνα
˱of˲_˓a˒_curse children
These words are an exclamation that emphasizes the wickedness of the false teachers. Alternate translation: [They are such cursed children!] or [What cursed children they are!]
OET (OET-LV) having eyes full of_adulteress, and unceasing from_sin, enticing unstable souls, having a_heart having_been_trained in_greediness, children of_a_curse,
OET (OET-RV) Their eyes are full of lust for adultery and never cease to sin, and having trained their hearts in greed they entice unstable people to become their cursed offspring.
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.
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