The author then delivers a torrent of accusations denouncing the opponents in 2:11–19. As the passage unfolds, the false teachers’ apostasy is discerned through the intertext of Balaam’s error. They abandon (καταλείπω) the “straight way” and have gone astray (πλανάω) after the “way of Balaam,” who loved the gain of unrighteous-ness (2:15). Καταλείπω has multiple meanings, but here it is related to apostasy (cf. Sir 28:23; Heb 4:1; Mart. Pol. 17.2). Likewise, πλανάω