1 But ADeut 13:1ff; Jer 6:13false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be B2 Cor 11:13false teachers CMatt 7:15; 1 Tim 4:1among you, who will DGal 2:4; Jude 4secretly introduce E1 Cor 11:19; Gal 5:20destructive heresies, even FJude 4denying the GRev 6:10Master who H1 Cor 6:20bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 Many will follow their AGen 19:5ff; 2 Pet 2:7, 18; Jude 4sensuality, and because of them BActs 16:17; 22:4; 24:14the way of the truth will be CRom 2:24maligned; 3 and in their A1 Tim 6:5; 2 Pet 2:14; Jude 16greed they will B2 Cor 2:17; 1 Thess 2:5exploit you with CRom 16:18; 2 Pet 1:16false words; DDeut 32:35their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

4 For AJude 6if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and BRev 20:1fcommitted them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare AEzek 26:20; 2 Pet 3:6the ancient world, but preserved BGen 6:8, 9; 1 Pet 3:20Noah, a 1Or heraldpreacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a C2 Pet 3:6flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 and if He AGen 19:24; Jude 7condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an BIs 1:9; Matt 10:15; 11:23; Rom 9:29; Jude 7example to those who would CJude 15live ungodly lives thereafter; 7 and if He AGen 19:16, 29rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the BGen 19:5ff; 2 Pet 2:2, 18; Jude 4sensual conduct of C2 Pet 3:17unprincipled men 8 (for by what he saw and heard that AHeb 11:4righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), 9 A1 Cor 10:13; Rev 3:10then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from 1Lit trial; or temptationtemptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the BMatt 10:15; Jude 6day of judgment, 10 and especially those who 1Lit go afterA2 Pet 3:3; Jude 16, 18indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and BEx 22:28; Jude 8despise authority.

Daring, CTitus 1:7self-willed, they do not tremble when they BEx 22:28; Jude 8revile angelic 2Lit gloriesmajesties, 11 AJude 9whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But AJude 10these, like unreasoning animals, BJer 12:3; Col 2:22born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in 1Lit their destruction alsothe destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, 13 suffering wrong as A2 Pet 2:15the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to BRom 13:13revel in the C1 Thess 5:7daytime. They are stains and blemishes, BRom 13:13reveling in their 1One early ms reads love feastsdeceptions, as they D1 Cor 11:21; Jude 12carouse with you, 14 having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, A2 Pet 2:18enticing BJames 1:8; 2 Pet 3:16unstable souls, having a heart trained in C2 Pet 2:3greed, DEph 2:3accursed children; 15 forsaking AActs 13:10the right way, they have gone astray, having followed BNum 22:5, 7; Deut 23:4; Neh 13:2; Jude 11; Rev 2:14the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved C2 Pet 2:13the wages of unrighteousness; 16 but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, ANum 22:21, 23, 28, 30fffor a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.

17 These are AJude 12springs without water and mists driven by a storm, BJude 13for whom the 1Lit blackness of darknessblack darkness has been reserved. 18 For speaking out AJude 16arrogant words of BEph 4:17vanity they C2 Pet 2:14entice by fleshly desires, by D2 Pet 2:2sensuality, those who barely E2 Pet 1:4; 2:20escape from the ones who live in error, 19 promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for AJohn 8:34; Rom 6:16by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they have A2 Pet 2:18escaped the defilements of the world by B2 Pet 1:2the knowledge of the C2 Pet 1:11; 3:18Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again D2 Tim 2:4entangled in them and are overcome, EMatt 12:45; Luke 11:26the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 AEzek 18:24; Heb 6:4ff; 10:26f; James 4:17For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from BGal 6:2; 1 Tim 6:14; 2 Pet 3:2the holy commandment CJude 3handed on to them. 22 1Lit The thing of the true proverb has happened to themIt has happened to them according to the true proverb, “AProv 26:11A ᴅoɢ ʀᴇᴛᴜʀɴs ᴛo ɪᴛs owɴ voᴍɪᴛ,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”