and if He did not spare the ancient world of Noah's day, when He brought a flood on those ungodly people (though Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven other people, were saved from it);

and if God also condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by reducing them to ashes, thereby condemning them to catastrophic destruction, and making them an example to other ungodly people in the future;

[This fate will come upon] those people especially who corrupt themselves with physical desires and despise being ruled by others. They are daring, self-willed, and are not afraid to speak against glorious beings [i.e., angels],

However, these people are like unreasonable, ignorant creatures of instinct, born as animals which are [to be] caught and destroyed. They speak out against things about which they are ignorant. In [the process of] destroying others, they will certainly be destroyed themselves.

They suffer wrong themselves for doing wrong to other people. They consider it [especially] pleasurable to carry on their drunken revellings, [even] during the daytime. They become blots and blemishes [i.e., like spoiled food] in your fellowship meal, as they revel in their deceitful behavior.

Their eyes are filled with sexual lust, and they are never satisfied when it comes to sinning. They entice unstable people and have hearts trained to be greedy [i.e., they continually desire the possessions of others]. [In this condition] they are under God's curse.

He spoke about these things in all of his letters, which contain some parts that are difficult to understand. [Because of this], ignorant and unstable people twist [his writings], just as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.