He warns them against false teachers and foretells their punishment.

¹ But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be among you lying teachers, who will introduce divisions of perdition, and they will deny him who bought them, the Lord, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.¹

1. 2:1Seeds of perdition: That is, heresies destructive of salvation.(Challoner)

² And many persons will follow their indulgences; through such persons, the way of truth will be blasphemed.

³ And in avarice, they will negotiate about you with false words. Their judgment, in the near future, is not delayed, and their perdition does not sleep.¹

1. 2:3The phrase ‘iam olim’ has the effect of referring to the near future: ‘iam’ (now or already), and ‘olim’ (referring to the past or to the future).(Conte)

⁴ For God did not spare those Angels who sinned, but instead delivered them, as if dragged down by infernal ropes, into the torments of the underworld, to be reserved unto judgment.

⁵ And he did not spare the original world, but he preserved the eighth one, Noah, the herald of justice, bringing the flood upon the world of the impious.¹

1. 2:5Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their three wives, (8 persons) were saved on the ark. Also, there were 8 generations between Adam and Noah.(Conte)

⁶ And he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, condemning them to be overthrown, setting them as an example to anyone who might act impiously.

⁷ And he rescued a just man, Lot, who was oppressed by the unjust and lewd behavior of the wicked.

⁸ For in seeing and in hearing, he was just, though he lived with those who, from day to day, crucified the just soul with works of iniquity.

⁹ Thus, the Lord knows how to rescue the pious from trials, and how to reserve the iniquitous for torments on the day of judgment;

¹⁰ even more so, those who walk after the flesh in unclean desires, and who despise proper authority. Boldly pleasing themselves, they do not dread to introduce divisions by blaspheming;

¹¹ whereas the Angels, who are greater in strength and virtue, did not bring against themselves such a deplorable judgment.¹

1. 2:11Bring not a railing judgment, etc: That is, they use no railing, nor cursing sentence; not even in their conflicts with the evil angels. See St. Jude, ver. 9.(Challoner)

¹² Yet truly, these others, like irrational beasts, naturally fall into traps and into ruin by blaspheming whatever they do not understand, and so they shall perish in their corruption,

¹³ receiving the reward of injustice, the fruition of valuing the delights of the day: defilements and stains, overflowing with self-indulgences, taking pleasure in their feasts with you,¹

1. 2:13The delights of a day: that is, the short delights of this world, in which they place all their happiness.(Challoner)

¹⁴ having eyes full of adultery and of incessant offenses, luring unstable souls, having a heart well-trained in avarice, sons of curses!

¹⁵ Abandoning the straight path, they wandered astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of iniquity.

¹⁶ Yet truly, he had a correction of his madness: the mute animal under the yoke, which, by speaking with a human voice, forbid the folly of the prophet.

¹⁷ These ones are like fountains without water, and like clouds stirred up by whirlwinds. For them, the mist of darkness is reserved.

¹⁸ For, speaking with the arrogance of vanity, they lure, by the desires of fleshly pleasures, those who are fleeing to some extent, who are being turned from error,

¹⁹ promising them freedoms, while they themselves are the servants of corruption. For by whatever a man is overcome, of this also is he the servant.

²⁰ For if, after taking refuge from the defilements of the world in the understanding of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again become entangled and overcome by these things, then the latter state becomes worse than the former.

²¹ For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of justice than, after acknowledging it, to turn away from that holy commandment which was handed on to them.¹

1. 2:21Those who die in original sin only, being guilty of the mortal sin of omission of never having found sanctifying grace throughout their adult lives, are punished in Hell with lesser sufferings than those who found sanctifying grace, and later lost it, never to regain it again, because of mortal sins after sanctifying grace.(Conte)

²² For the truth of the proverb has happened to them: The dog has returned to his own vomit, and the washed sow has returned to her wallowing in the mud.