1But there were also false prophets Dt 13:1-5; Mt 7:15 among the people, just as there will be false teachers Ac 20:29; 2Co 11:13-15; Gl 2:4; 1Tm 4:1; 2Tm 4:3 among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought 1Co 6:20; 7:23 them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves.

2Many will follow their unrestrained ways, and the way of truth will be blasphemed because of them. Rm 2:24

3They will exploit Jms 4:13 you in their greed Eph 5:3 with deceptive words. Their condemnation, Mt 12:41; 23:33; Rm 3:8 pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.

4For if God didn’t spare Rm 8:32; Jd 6 the angels who sinned but threw them down into Tartarus = Gk name for a place of divine punishment in the underworld. Rv 20:2-3,10 and delivered them to be kept in chains Other mss read in pits of darkness until judgment; Mt 25:41

5and if He didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, Gn 5:29 a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, Lit righteousness, as the eighth 1Pt 3:20 when He brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;

6and if He reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah Gn 19:24; Jd 7 to ashes and condemned them to ruin, Other mss omit to ruin making them an example to those who were going to be ungodly; Other mss read an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly Is 1:9; Jd 15

7and if He rescued righteous Lot, Gn 19:16 distressed by the unrestrained behavior of the immoral

8(for as he lived among them, that righteous man tormented himself day by day with the lawless deeds he saw and heard Ps 119:136,158; Ezk 9:4) —

9then the Lord knows how to rescue 1Co 10:13 the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, Mt 10:15; Jd 6

10especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority. Jd 8-12

11however, angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring a slanderous charge against them before the Lord. Other mss read them from the Lord

12But these people, like irrational animals — creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed — speak blasphemies about things they don’t understand, and in their destruction they too will be destroyed,

13suffering harm as the payment for unrighteousness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, delighting in their deceptions Other mss read delighting in the love feasts as they feast with you.

14They have eyes full of adultery Mt 5:27-28 and are always looking for sin. They seduce unstable people and have hearts trained in greed. Children under a curse! Jr 23:14; Hs 4:2; Eph 2:3; Heb 2:13

15They have gone astray by abandoning the straight path Ac 13:10 and have followed the path of Balaam, Nm 22:5-7; Dt 23:4; Neh 13:2; Jd 11; Rv 2:14 the son of Bosor, Other mss read Beor who loved the wages of unrighteousness Hs 9:1; Mc 1:7; Ac 1:18

16but received a rebuke for his transgression: A donkey that could not talk spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s irrationality. Nm 22:22-35

17These people are springs without water, mists driven by a whirlwind. The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them. Jd 13

18For by uttering boastful, empty words, Jd 16 they seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escaped Or people who are barely escaping from those who live in error.

19They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them. Jn 8:34; Rm 6:16; 7:5

20For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, 2Pt 1:2 they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first. Mt 12:45; Lk 11:26

21For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness Pr 8:20; 12:28; 16:31; 21:21; Mt 21:32 than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command Rm 7:12; 1Tm 6:14 delivered Jd 3 to them. Ezk 18:1-32; Heb 6:4-6; 10:26-27

22It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit, Pr 26:11 Pr 26:11 and, “a sow, after washing itself, wallows in the mud.”