1But false prophets also arose among the people, just as false teachers will also arise among you, who will introduce destructive sects and deny the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.2And many will follow their debaucheries, and because of them the way of the truth will be blasphemed.3And in greed they will exploit you with fabricated words. Their judgment pronounced long ago is not idle, and their destruction does not doze.4For if God did not spare the angels who sinned but cast them into Tartarus with chains of darkness and committed them to judgment, keeping them there,5and if he did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly,6and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by turning them to ashes and made them an example of what is coming upon the ungodly,7and rescued righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the lawless in their debauchery,8for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul by their lawless works,9then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,10and especially those who go after the flesh in desire of defilement and despise lordship. Bold and self-willed, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones,11whereas angels, though greater in strength and power, do not bring a blasphemous judgment against them.12But these, like irrational animals, born to be captured and destroyed, blaspheme in matters of which they are ignorant, and will also be destroyed,13suffering harm as the wage of unrighteousness. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions while they feast with you.14They have eyes full of an adulteress and unceasing sin. They entice unstable souls. They have a heart trained in greed. Accursed children!15Forsaking the straight way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness,16but received a rebuke for his own lawlessness: a mute donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet's insanity.17These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of darkness has been reserved.18For, speaking boastful words of futility, they entice by fleshly desires and debaucheries those who are scarcely escaping from those who live in error.19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.20For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.21For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.22What the true proverb says has happened to them: 'The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.'