11. Angels, who have more strength and power than these teachers, don’t bring an insulting judgment against them from the Lord.
12. These false teachers insult what they don’t understand. They are like animals, which are creatures of instinct that are born to be caught and killed. So they will be destroyed like animals
13. and lose what their wrongdoing earned them.These false teachers are stains and blemishes. They take pleasure in holding wild parties in broad daylight. They especially enjoy deceiving you while they eat with you.
14. They’re always looking for an adulterous woman. They can’t stop looking for sin as they seduce people who aren’t sure of what they believe. Their minds are focused on their greed. They are cursed.
15. These false teachers have left the straight path and wandered off to follow the path of Balaam, son of Beor. Balaam loved what his wrongdoing earned him.
16. But he was convicted for his evil. A donkey, which normally can’t talk, spoke with a human voice and wouldn’t allow the prophet to continue his insanity.
17. These false teachers are dried-up springs. They are a mist blown around by a storm. Gloomy darkness has been kept for them.
18. They arrogantly use nonsense to seduce people by appealing to their sexual desires, especially to sexual freedom. They seduce people who have just escaped from those who live in error.
19. They promise these people freedom, but they themselves are slaves to corruption. A person is a slave to whatever he gives in to.
20. People can know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and escape the world’s filth. But if they get involved in this filth again and give in to it, they are worse off than they were before.
21. It would have been better for them never to have known the way of life that God approves of than to know it and turn their backs on the holy life God told them to live.
22. These proverbs have come true for them: “A dog goes back to its vomit,” and “A sow that has been washed goes back to roll around in the mud.”