12 But these people, like irrational animals—creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed—slander what they do not understand, and in their destruction they too will be destroyed. 13 They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are spots and blemishes, delighting in their deceptionsD while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adulteryh that never stop looking for sin. They seduce unstable people and have hearts trained in greed. Children under a curse!i 15 They have gone astray by abandoning the straight pathj and have followed the path of Balaam,k the son of Bosor,E who loved the wages of wickednessl 16 but received a rebuke for his lawlessness: A speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.m

17 These people are springs without water, mists driven by a storm. The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them.n 18 For by uttering boastful, empty words,o they seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escapedF from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them.p 20 For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of the LordG and Savior Jesus Christ,q they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first.r 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousnesss than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandt deliveredu to them.v 22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit,H,w and, “A washed sow returns to wallowing in the mud.”