¹ But there were false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers also among you; and these will stealthily introduce ruinous sects, and deny the Lord that bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction:

² and many will follow their dissolute ways, on account of whom the way of truth will be reviled;

³ and, with delusive words, they will, through covetousness, make gain of you: the condemnation, long ago denounced against these, delays not, and their destruction does not slumber.

⁴ For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and delivered them over to chains of darkness, to be kept for judgment;

⁵ and if he spared not the old world, but brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, and saved Noah, the eighth person, who was a preacher of righteousness;

⁶ and if, turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, he condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example to those who should afterward live in an ungodly manner,

⁷ and delivered righteous Lot, wearied out with the licentious conduct of the lawless,―

⁸ for that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds:

⁹ then, the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to keep the ungodly for the day of judgment, to be punished;

¹⁰ but especially those who walk after the flesh in unclean lust, and who despise government. Presumptuous, willful men! they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries:

¹¹ whereas angels, who excel in might and in power, bring no railing accusation against them in the presence of the Lord.

¹² But these men, like beasts with out reason, which follow the instinct of nature, and are made to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil of things that they understand not, shall utterly perish in their own corruption,

¹³ and receive the reward of unrighteousness. Counting it a pleasure to riot in the day-time, they are spots and stains, rioting in their delusions, while feasting with you;

¹⁴ having eyes that are full of the adulteress, and that can not cease from sin, deceiving unstable souls, having a heart exercised in covetousness, accursed children,

¹⁵ who have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

¹⁶ but he was rebuked for his iniquity,―the dumb beast, speaking with man’s voice, restrained the madness of the prophet.

¹⁷ These men are fountains without water, clouds driven by a tempest, for whom the gloom of darkness is reserved forever.

¹⁸ For by speaking boastful words of folly, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, and through lasciviousness, those who had really escaped from those who live in error.

¹⁹ While they promise them freedom, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for by whatever any man is overcome, he is also enslaved.

²⁰ For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these, and overcome by them, the last state of such is worse than the first.

²¹ For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.

²² But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: The dog has turned again to his own vomit; and, The sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire.