1But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly bring in destructive false teachings. They will even deny the Lord who bought them, and so they bring swift destruction on themselves.
2Many will follow their harmful ways. Because of them, the way of truth will be spoken of with evil words.
3In their greed they will use made-up words to make money out of you. Their judgment, decided long ago, does not delay, and their destruction is not asleep.
4God did not spare the angels who sinned. He threw them down to hell and handed them over to chains of darkness, to be kept there for judgment.
5He did not spare the ancient world, but he saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly.
6He turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes and condemned them, overthrowing them. He made them an example of what happens to those who would live in an ungodly way.
7And he rescued Lot, a just man, who was worn down by the filthy conduct of the wicked.
8(For that righteous man lived among them, and day after day he saw and heard their lawless deeds, and it tormented his righteous soul.)
9So the Lord knows how to rescue the godly out of testing, and how to keep the unjust under punishment until the day of judgment.
10This is true above all of those who follow the flesh in unclean desire, and who despise authority. They are bold and stubborn. They are not afraid to speak evil of glorious ones.
11Yet angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring an insulting accusation against them before the Lord.
12But these people are like animals without reason, creatures born to be caught and destroyed. They speak evil of things they do not understand. They will be utterly destroyed in their own corruption.
13They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. They count it a pleasure to feast wildly in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, enjoying their own deceptions while they eat with you.
14Their eyes are full of adultery, and they never stop sinning. They lure unsteady souls. Their hearts are trained in greed. They are cursed children.
15They have left the right way and wandered off. They follow the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.
16But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing. A donkey that cannot speak spoke with a man's voice and stopped the prophet's madness.
17These people are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm. The gloom of darkness is kept for them for ever.
18They speak great swelling words that mean nothing. By the desires of the flesh and by shameless living they lure people who have only just escaped from those who live in error.
19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever defeats a man, that is what he is made a slave to.
20They had escaped the filth of the world through knowing the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But if they are tangled up in it again and defeated, then their last state is worse than the first.
21It would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness, than to know it and then turn away from the holy commandment given to them.
22What has happened to them fits the true proverb: "The dog goes back to its own vomit again," and, "The pig that was washed goes back to rolling in the mud."