Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, to exhort you, that ye should continually labour in the faith, which was once given 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.

My mind is therefore to put you in remembrance, forasmuch as ye once know this, how that the Lord - after that he had delivered the people out of Egypt - destroyed them which afterward 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.

Likewise these dreamers defile the flesh, despise rulers, and speak evil of them that are in authority.

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.

Alas for them, because they have trod the road that Cain did; for gain they have rushed into Balaam's error and have perished in rebellion like that of 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 to these, too, that Enoch, the "seventh in descent from Adam," prophesied, saying, "Lo! the Lord is come with myriads of his saints,

to give judgment against all men, and to rebuke all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their cruel speakings, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."

But you, dearly beloved, must remember the words that have already been spoken by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,

how that they told you that there should be beguilers in the last time, which should walk after their own ungodly lusts.

these are they who distinguish themselves, though they are sensual, and have nothing that is spiritual.

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 in fear save some, snatching them out of the fire, hating even the garment that was stained by the flesh.

Unto him that is able to keep you, that ye fall not, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with 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}