10
and especially
1those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and
2despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble
3as they blaspheme the glorious ones,
11
4whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord.
12
5But these, like irrational animals,
6creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction,
13
suffering wrong as
7the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure
8to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while
9they feast with you.
14
They have eyes full of adultery,
10insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts
11trained in greed.
12Accursed children!
15
Forsaking the right way,
13they have gone astray. They have followed
14the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved
15gain from wrongdoing,
16
but was rebuked for his own transgression;
16a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
17
17These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm.
18For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.
18
For,
19speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely
20escaping from those who live in error.
19
They promise them
21freedom,
22but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.
20
For if,
23after they have escaped the defilements of the world
24through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome,
25the last state has become worse for them than the first.
21
For
26it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from
27the holy commandment delivered to them.
22
What the true proverb says has happened to them: "The
28dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire."