1But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 2And many will follow their destructive ways, through whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3By covetousness they will exploit you with well-turned words; whose judgment of old is not idle, and their destruction does not slumber. 4For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those intending to live ungodly; 7and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the lustful behavior of the wicked 8(for that righteous man, dwelling among them, his righteous soul was tormented from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds); 9then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust for the day of judgment, to be punished, 10and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of defilement and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries. 11Whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord. 12But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, 13and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who consider it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, delighting in their own deceptions while they feast with you, 14having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls; having a heart exercised in covetousness; accursed children. 15They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet. 17These are wells without water, clouds being driven by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. 18For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through wantonness, the ones who have actually escaped from those living in error. 19While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. 20For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the full true knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the end is worse for them than the beginning. 21For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to his own vomit, and, a sow, having been washed, to her wallowing in the mire.