15 They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of oBalaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16 but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.

17 pThese are wells without water, 7clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness 8forever.

Deceptions of False Teachers

18 For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who 9have actually escaped from those who live in error. 19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of 1corruption; qfor by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into 2bondage. 20 For if, after they rhave escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are sagain entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 21 For tit 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. 22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: u“A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”