1 B ut there were false teachers among the people. And there will be false teachers among you also. These people will work in secret ways to bring false teaching to you. They will turn against Christ Who bought them with His blood. They bring fast death on themselves.

But also there arose false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among yourselves, who will subtly and stealthily introduce heretical doctrines (destructive heresies), even denying and disowning the Master Who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

2 M any people will follow their wrong ways. Because of what they do, people will speak bad things against the way of truth.

And many will follow their immoral ways and lascivious doings; because of them the true Way will be maligned and defamed.

3 T hey will tell lies and false stories so they can use you to get things for themselves. But God judged them long ago and their death is on the way.

And in their covetousness (lust, greed) they will exploit you with false (cunning) arguments. From of old the sentence for them has not been idle; their destruction (eternal misery) has not been asleep.

4 G od did not hold back from punishing the angels who sinned, but sent them down to hell. They are to be kept there in the deep hole of darkness until they stand before Him Who judges them.

For God did not spare angels that sinned, but cast them into hell, delivering them to be kept there in pits of gloom till the judgment and their doom.

5 G od did not hold back from punishing the people of the world who sinned long ago. He brought the flood on the world of sinners. But Noah was a preacher of right living. He and his family of seven were the only ones God saved.

And He spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven other persons, when He brought a flood upon the world of ungodly.

6 G od said that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were guilty, and He destroyed them with fire. This was to show people who did not worship God what would happen to them.

And He condemned to ruin and extinction the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ashes set them forth as an example to those who would be ungodly;

7 L ot was taken away from Sodom because he was right with God. He had been troubled by the sins that bad men did in wild living.

And He rescued righteous Lot, greatly worn out and distressed by the wanton ways of the ungodly and lawless—

8 H e saw and heard how the people around him broke the Law. Everyday his own soul which was right with God was troubled because of their sinful ways.

For that just man, living among them, tortured his righteous soul every day with what he saw and heard of unlawful and wicked deeds—

9 B ut the Lord knows how to help men who are right with God when they are tempted. He also knows how to keep the sinners suffering for their wrong-doing until the day they stand before God Who will judge them.

Now if the Lord knows how to rescue the godly out of temptations and trials, and how to keep the ungodly under chastisement until the day of judgment and doom,

10 T his is true about those who keep on wanting to please their own bodies in sinful desires and those who will not obey laws. They want to please themselves and are not afraid when they laugh and say bad things about the powers in heaven.

And particularly those who walk after the flesh and indulge in the lust of polluting passion and scorn and despise authority. Presumptuous daring! They scoff at and revile dignitaries (glorious ones) without trembling,

11 A ngels are greater in strength and power than they. But angels do not speak against these powers before the Lord.

Whereas angels, though superior in might and power, do not bring a defaming charge against them before the Lord.

12 M en like this are like animals who are not able to think but are born to be caught and killed. They speak bad words against that which they do not understand. They will die in their own sinful ways.

But these! Like unreasoning beasts, mere creatures of instinct, born to be captured and destroyed, railing at things of which they are ignorant, they shall utterly perish in their corruption,

13 T his is the pay they will suffer for their sinful lives. They are not ashamed when they sin in the daylight. They are sores and dirty spots among you while they eat and drink big meals with you.

Being destined to receive the reward of unrighteousness. They count it a delight to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions and carousing together as they feast with you.

14 T heir eyes are full of sex sins. They never have enough sin. They get weak people to go along with them. Their hearts are always wanting something. They are people who will end up in hell because

They have eyes full of harlotry, insatiable for sin. They beguile and bait and lure away unstable souls. Their hearts are trained in covetousness (lust, greed), children of a curse '> exposed to cursing]!

15 t hey have left the right way and have gone the wrong way. They have followed the way of Balaam, who was the son of Beor. He loved the money he got for his sin.

Forsaking the straight road they have gone astray; they have followed the way of Balaam of Beor, who loved the reward of wickedness.

16 B ut he was stopped in his sin. A donkey spoke to him with a man’s voice. It stopped this early preacher from going on in his crazy way.

But he was rebuked for his own transgression when a dumb beast of burden spoke with human voice and checked the prophet’s madness.

17 S uch people are like wells without water. They are like clouds before a storm. The darkest place below has been kept for them.

These are springs without water and mists driven along before a tempest, for whom is reserved forever the gloom of darkness.

18 T hey speak big-sounding words which show they are proud. They get men who are trying to keep away from sinful men to give in to the sinful desires of the flesh.

For uttering loud boasts of folly, they beguile and lure with lustful desires of the flesh those who are barely escaping from them who are wrongdoers.

19 T hey promise that these men will be free. But they themselves are chained to sin. For a man is chained to anything that has power over him.

They promise them liberty, when they themselves are the slaves of depravity and defilement—for by whatever anyone is made inferior or worse or is overcome, to that he is enslaved.

20 T here are men who have been made free from the sins of the world by learning to know the Lord Jesus Christ, the One Who saves. But if they do these sins again, and are not able to keep from doing them, they are worse than they were before.

For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again become entangled in them and are overcome, their last condition is worse than the first.

21 A fter knowing the holy Law that was given to them, they turned from it. It would have been better for them if they had not known how to be right with God.

For never to have obtained a knowledge of the way of righteousness would have been better for them than, having obtained, to turn back from the holy commandment which was delivered to them.

22 T hey are like the wise saying, “A dog turns back to what he has thrown up.” And, “A pig that has been washed goes back to roll in the mud.”

There has befallen them the thing spoken of in the true proverb, The dog turns back to his own vomit, and, The sow is washed only to wallow again in the mire.