1 Now, false prophets also appeared among the people, just as among you, too, there will be false teachers, who will secretly introduce heresies that result in utter ruin and destruction,+ disowning the very Master who indeed paid the price to make them his possession,*+ and as a result will bring upon themselves swift destruction and ruin. 2 And there will be many, many people who follow the licentious example of these teachers+ on whose account the way of truth will be brought into disrepute. 3 In their greed they will use these to cheat you of your money:+ Stories and teachings of their own clever imaginations.+ The punishment+ to be poured out on them has long been prepared,+ and the utter ruin and destruction in store for them is most certainly on its way.+

4 If God didn’t spare the angels,+ you see, when they sinned, but on the contrary, banishing them to the lowest part of the underworld, to Tartarus,+ had them indeed chained up in the very regions of deep and gloomy darkness+ to be held for judgment; 5 if God+ didn’t spare, either, the ancient world, but protected this man—Noah, as the eighth person, rescued along with seven others,+ a proclaimer of righteousness+—when he brought upon an ungodly world+ the flood; 6 if he punished,+ too, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ashes, thereby making them a solemn warning and example of what is going to befall the ungodly,+ 7 and rescued this man—righteous Lot, who felt deep distress over the shameful and licentious conduct of such vile men+ 8 (because of the wicked things he heard and saw, you see, that righteous man, while living among those people+ day after day, suffered great anguish in his righteous soul+); 9 then we can safely conclude that the Lord is quite able to rescue the godly, on the one hand, from calamity,+ and to hold the wicked, on the other, for punishment at+ the mighty Day of judgment— 10 doom hanging especially over+ those whose evil, defiling desires drive them to pursue perverse and immoral relations,+ and who despise authority.

Brazen and arrogant, these teachers+ aren’t afraid to slander those of high honor,+11 despite the fact that not even the angels, although they are much stronger and far more powerful, dare to bring against them in the presence of the Lord a slanderous accusation.+ 12 These fellows, however, like senseless+ animals, mere creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed,+ mounting slanderous attacks against things they don’t understand, will like such beasts+ also be utterly destroyed, 13 suffering harm in repayment for the harm they themselves caused.+ Regarding it a pure joy to carouse right out in broad daylight, they are ugly stains and blemishes on the fellowship,+ carousing and gorging themselves on their deceits while eating with you, 14 having eyes that turn each and every woman they see into an adulteress+ and which never stop to take a rest from sinning, setting their bait for the unstable, having hearts that are so very well-trained in greed, a doomed and accursed lot+! 15 Forsaking the straight path, they have wandered astray, following the path taken by Balaam the son of Beor, who was glad to receive handsome payment, indeed, in return for causing harm.+ 16 Yet Beor’s son Balaam was firmly rebuked for doing what was evil and bad, when a mute donkey spoke with a human voice, and stopped him from doing what was utterly mad.+

17 These men are as reliable as springs without water!+ They are like mists that promise the ground refreshment but are then driven away+ by a fierce and sudden storm, people for whom is reserved a place in thick and utter darkness.+ 18 Using boastful rhetoric that sounds so impressive, you see, but which is in fact worthless and deluded,+ it is those who are just escaping a way of life full of perversion and deceitful error+ for whom these false teachers+ set their bait, by justifying the evil desires of the mortal nature+ and licentious conduct.+ 19 Freedom is what they promise such people, even though, in their own case, slaves, of moral corruption, is what they themselves are. It is “that by which a person has been conquered,” after all, “to which he is a slave.” 20 If, you see, after escaping the defiling practices of the world by coming to know our Lord and Savior Jesus the Messiah, by such practices people+ are once again, having become re-entangled in them,+ conquered, they are in a worse state at this point than they were before.+ 21 Indeed, it would have been truly better for them to have never known the path of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn their backs on the holy way of life laid down in the sacred teaching+ that was passed on to them. 22 The truth of these proverbs is seen in them:+ “A dog returns to its own vomit,”+ and, “a sow, after washing herself, goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”