10 and especially fthose who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. gThey are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of 3dignitaries, 11 whereas hangels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.

Depravity of False Teachers

12 But these, ilike 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, 13 jand will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure kto 4carouse in the daytime. lThey are spots and blemishes, 5carousing in their own deceptions while mthey feast with you, 14 having eyes full of 6adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. nThey have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. 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.”