11 Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain;a they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error;b they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.c

12 These people are blemishes at your love feasts,d eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves.e They are clouds without rain,f blown along by the wind;g autumn trees, without fruit and uprootedh—twice dead. 13 They are wild waves of the sea,i foaming up their shame;j wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.k

14 Enoch,l the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is comingm with thousands upon thousands of his holy onesn 15 to judgeo everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”e p 16 These people are grumblersq and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires;r they boasts about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

A Call to Persevere

17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostlest of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold.u 18 They said to you, “In the last timesv there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.”w 19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.x