But in those days ^afalse prophets arose among the people, just as there will be ^bfalse teachers ^camong you, who will ^dsubtly introduce ^edestructive heresies, even ^fdenying the ^gMaster who ^hbought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their ^ashameful ways, and because of them ^bthe way of truth will be ^cmaligned. 3 And in their ^agreed they will ^bexploit you with ^cfalse arguments and twisted doctrine. ^dTheir sentence of condemnation which God has decreed from a time long ago is not idle but is still in force, and their destruction and deepening misery is not asleep but is on its way.

4 ¹For if ^aGod did not even spare angels that sinned, but threw them into ²hell and ^bsent them to pits of gloom to be kept there for judgment; 5 and if He did not spare ^athe ancient world, but protected ^bNoah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought the judgment of a ^cflood upon the world of the ungodly; Gen 6-8; 1+@Pet 3:20 6 and if He ^acondemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an ^bexample to those who would ^clive ungodly lives thereafter; Gen 19:24 7 and if He ^arescued righteous ¹Lot, who was tormented by the ^bimmoral conduct of ^cunprincipled and ungodly men Gen 19:16, 29 8 (for that ^ajust man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by what he saw and heard of their lawless acts), 9 then in light of the fact that all this is true, be sure that ^athe Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and how to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the ^bday of judgment, 10 and especially ¹those who ^aindulge in the corrupt passions of the sin nature, and ^bdespise authority.

Presumptuous and reckless, ^cself-willed and arrogant creatures, despising the majesty of the Lord, they do not tremble when they ^drevile angelic majesties, 11 ^awhereas even angels who are superior in might and power do not bring a reviling (defaming) accusation against them before the Lord. Jude 8 12 But ^athese false teachers, like unreasoning animals, mere creatures of instinct, ^bborn to be captured and destroyed, reviling things they do not understand, will also perish in their own corruption in their destroying they will be destroyed, 13 suffering wrong destined for punishment as the ^awages of doing wrong. They count it a delight to ^brevel in the ^cdaytime living luxuriously. They are stains and blemishes on mankind, ^dreveling in their ¹deceptions even as they ^efeast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, constantly looking for sin, ^aenticing and luring away ^bunstable souls. Having hearts trained in ^cgreed, they are ^dchildren of a curse. 15 Abandoning ^athe straight road that is, the right way to live, they have gone astray; they have followed ^bthe way of the false teacher Balaam the son of Beor, who loved ^cthe reward of wickedness; Num 22:5, 7 16 but he was rebuked for his own transgression: ^aa mute donkey spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. Num 22:21-31

17 These false teachers are ^asprings without water and mists driven by a tempest, ^bfor whom is reserved the gloom of black darkness. 18 For uttering ^aarrogant words of ^bvanity pompous words disguised to sound scholarly or profound, but meaning nothing and containing no spiritual truth, they ^cbeguile and lure using lustful desires, by ^dsensuality, those who barely ^eescape from the ones who live in error. 19 They promise them liberty, when they themselves are the slaves of depravity—for ^aby whatever anyone is defeated and overcome, to that person, thing, philosophy, or concept he is continually enslaved. 20 For if, after they have ^aescaped the pollutions of the world by personal ^bknowledge of our ^cLord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again ^dentangled in them and are overcome, ^etheir last condition has become worse for them than the first. 21 ^aFor it would have been better for them not to have personally known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to have turned back from ^bthe holy commandment verbally ^chanded on to them. 22 The thing spoken of in the true proverb has happened to them, “^aTHE DOG RETURNS TO HIS OWN VOMIT,” and, “A sow is washed only to wallow again in the mire.” Prov 26:11