Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

For certain men have secretly infiltrated [your ranks]; they are men who had been written about long ago that they should be judged [and condemned] for perverting the unearned favor of our God into [a license for] living unrestrained, indecent lives, and who deny [the identity and work of] our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

And angels that kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

Despite that, in the same way also these [men], [because of their] dreams, defile the flesh and reject authority and blaspheme majestic beings.

But, when the ruling angel Michael disputed with the devil over [the final disposal of] the body of Moses, [even] he did not dare to bring derogatory charges against him [i.e., the devil], but said, "May the Lord rebuke you." [Note: Some suggest that this account appeared in an apocryphal book, possibly "The Assumption of Moses"].

But these men sneer at anything which they do not understand; and whatever they do know by [mere] instinct, like unreasoning and irrational beasts—by these things they are destroyed.

Woe to them! For they have gone the [defiant] way of Cain, and for profit they have run headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of [mutinous] Korah.

These are they who are hidden rocks in your love-feasts when they feast with you, shepherds that without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn leaves without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

wild waves of the sea foaming up their own shame; wandering stars that are forever doomed to utter darkness.

It was about these people that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, when he said, “Look, the Lord came with myriads of His holy ones

To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

But as for you, my dearly-loved friends, remember the words that before now were spoken by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ--

How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.

These are they that separate themselves, sensual, not having the Spirit.

maintain yourselves in the love of God, while anticipating the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that brings eternal life.

And some, that are wavering, convince; Some save, snatching them out of the fire;

and some save, plucking them from the fire, but have mercy on others with fear, hating even the garment that is defiled by the flesh.

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,

that is to say, to God our saviour which only is wise; be glory, majesty, dominion, and power, now and forever. Amen. {Here ends the General Epistle of Jude}