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 there were also false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who covertly shall bring in destructive sects and shall deny the Lord that 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 shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be blasphemed;

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 covetousness they shall make merchandise of you with feigned words, upon whom the condemnation from a long time ago does not delay, and their perdition does not sleep.

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 if God did not forgive the angels that sinned, but cast them down into the deepest abyss and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

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 if he did not forgive the old world, but kept Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven other persons, bringing in the flood upon the world of the 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 if he condemned by destruction the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha, turning them into ashes, making them an example unto those that after should live without fear and reverence of God;

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 delivered just Lot, who was persecuted by those abominable people because of their nefarious conversation;

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 righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, afflicted his righteous soul from day to day with the deeds of those unjust people);

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.

the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished;

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 chiefly those that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise dominion; presumptuous, arrogant, they are not afraid to speak evil of the higher powers;

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

whereas even the angels, who are greater in power and might, bring no curse of judgment 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, speaking evil of the things that they do not understand (as natural animals without reason, who are made to be taken and destroyed), shall utterly perish in their own 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.

receiving the reward of their unrighteousness, as those that count it pleasure to live luxuriously every day. These are spots and blemishes, who eat together with you, while at the same time they revel in their deceit,

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

having their eyes full of adultery, and not knowing how to cease from sin, baiting unstable souls, having their heart exercised in covetous practices; cursed sons,

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.

who forsaking the right way have erred, having followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness,

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.

and was rebuked for his iniquity; a dumb animal accustomed to a yoke (upon which he was seated), speaking with man’s voice, hindered the madness of the prophet.

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 wells without water, clouds that are brought by a whirlwind, to whom gross darkness is reserved for ever.

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 speaking arrogant words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from those who converse in error,

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.

promising them liberty, being they themselves the slaves of corruption: for he who is overcome by someone is subject to bondage by the one that overcame him.

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.

Certainly, if having separated themselves from the contaminations of the world, by the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they again entangle themselves therein and are overcome, their latter end is made worse for them than the beginnings.

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 it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered unto 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.”

But it has happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog returns unto his own vomit, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.