Thematic Bible




Thematic Bible








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

An evil person will seek only rebellion, and a cruel messenger will be sent against him.

For a fool living in luxury is not fitting, [any] more [than it is] for a slave to rule over princes.

The rage of a king growls like a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.

Roaring like the lion [is the] dreaded anger of a king; he who provokes him forfeits his life.

But know this, that in the last days difficult times will come, for people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, hardhearted, irreconcilable, slanderous, without self-control, savage, with no interest for what is good, read more.
traitors, reckless, conceited, loving pleasure rather than loving God,



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


But there were also false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you also, who will bring in {destructive heresies}, even denying the Master who bought them, [thus] bringing on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their licentious ways, because of whom the way of truth will be reviled. And in greediness they will exploit you with false words, whose condemnation [from] long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. read more.
For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but held [them] captive in Tartarus with chains of darkness [and] handed [them] over to be kept for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, {and seven others} [when he] brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes, having appointed [them] [as] an example for those who are going to be ungodly, and rescued righteous Lot, worn down by the way of life of lawless persons in licentiousness (for that righteous man, [as he] lived among them day after day, was tormenting [his] righteous soul by the lawless deeds [he was] seeing and hearing), [then] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to reserve the unrighteous to be punished at the day of judgment, and especially those who go after the flesh in defiling lust and who despise authority. Bold [and] arrogant, they do not tremble in awe [as they] blaspheme majestic beings, whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a demeaning judgment. But these persons, like irrational animals born [only with] natural [instincts] for capture and killing, blaspheming {about things} they do not understand, in their destruction will also be destroyed, being harmed [as the] wages of unrighteousness. Considering reveling in the daytime a pleasure, [they are] stains and blemishes, carousing in their deceitful pleasures [when they] feast together with you, having eyes full of [desire for] an adulteress and unceasing from sin, enticing unstable persons, [and] having hearts trained for greediness. Accursed children! [By] leaving the straight path, they have gone astray, [because they] followed the way of Balaam the [son of] Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but received a rebuke for his own lawlessness: a speechless donkey, speaking with a human voice, restrained {the prophet's madness}. These [people] are waterless springs and mists driven by a hurricane, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved. {For by speaking high-sounding but empty words}, they entice with desires of the flesh [and] with licentiousness those who are scarcely escaping from those who live in error, promising them freedom [although they] themselves are slaves of depravity. For to whatever someone succumbs, by this he is also enslaved.


For those who are [living] according to the flesh are intent on the things of the flesh, but those [who are living] according to the Spirit [are intent on] the things of the Spirit. For the mindset of the flesh [is] death, but the mindset of the Spirit [is] life and peace, because the mindset of the flesh [is] enmity toward God, for [it is] not subjected to the law of God, for [it is] not able [to do so], read more.
and those who are in the flesh are not able to please God.

and especially those who go after the flesh in defiling lust and who despise authority. Bold [and] arrogant, they do not tremble in awe [as they] blaspheme majestic beings, whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a demeaning judgment.


Like a dog returning to his vomit [is] a fool reverting to his folly.

But there were also false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you also, who will bring in {destructive heresies}, even denying the Master who bought them, [thus] bringing on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their licentious ways, because of whom the way of truth will be reviled. And in greediness they will exploit you with false words, whose condemnation [from] long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. read more.
For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but held [them] captive in Tartarus with chains of darkness [and] handed [them] over to be kept for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, {and seven others} [when he] brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes, having appointed [them] [as] an example for those who are going to be ungodly, and rescued righteous Lot, worn down by the way of life of lawless persons in licentiousness (for that righteous man, [as he] lived among them day after day, was tormenting [his] righteous soul by the lawless deeds [he was] seeing and hearing), [then] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to reserve the unrighteous to be punished at the day of judgment, and especially those who go after the flesh in defiling lust and who despise authority. Bold [and] arrogant, they do not tremble in awe [as they] blaspheme majestic beings, whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a demeaning judgment. But these persons, like irrational animals born [only with] natural [instincts] for capture and killing, blaspheming {about things} they do not understand, in their destruction will also be destroyed, being harmed [as the] wages of unrighteousness. Considering reveling in the daytime a pleasure, [they are] stains and blemishes, carousing in their deceitful pleasures [when they] feast together with you, having eyes full of [desire for] an adulteress and unceasing from sin, enticing unstable persons, [and] having hearts trained for greediness. Accursed children! [By] leaving the straight path, they have gone astray, [because they] followed the way of Balaam the [son of] Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but received a rebuke for his own lawlessness: a speechless donkey, speaking with a human voice, restrained {the prophet's madness}. These [people] are waterless springs and mists driven by a hurricane, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved. {For by speaking high-sounding but empty words}, they entice with desires of the flesh [and] with licentiousness those who are scarcely escaping from those who live in error, promising them freedom [although they] themselves are slaves of depravity. For to whatever someone succumbs, by this he is also enslaved. For if, [after they] have escaped from the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled in these [things] [and] succumb to [them], the last [state] has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known [it], to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them. The [statement] of the true proverb has happened to them, "A dog returns to its own vomit," and "A sow, [after] washing herself, [returns] to wallowing in the mud."


But there were also false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you also, who will bring in {destructive heresies}, even denying the Master who bought them, [thus] bringing on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their licentious ways, because of whom the way of truth will be reviled. And in greediness they will exploit you with false words, whose condemnation [from] long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. read more.
For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but held [them] captive in Tartarus with chains of darkness [and] handed [them] over to be kept for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, {and seven others} [when he] brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes, having appointed [them] [as] an example for those who are going to be ungodly, and rescued righteous Lot, worn down by the way of life of lawless persons in licentiousness (for that righteous man, [as he] lived among them day after day, was tormenting [his] righteous soul by the lawless deeds [he was] seeing and hearing), [then] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to reserve the unrighteous to be punished at the day of judgment, and especially those who go after the flesh in defiling lust and who despise authority. Bold [and] arrogant, they do not tremble in awe [as they] blaspheme majestic beings, whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a demeaning judgment. But these persons, like irrational animals born [only with] natural [instincts] for capture and killing, blaspheming {about things} they do not understand, in their destruction will also be destroyed, being harmed [as the] wages of unrighteousness. Considering reveling in the daytime a pleasure, [they are] stains and blemishes, carousing in their deceitful pleasures [when they] feast together with you, having eyes full of [desire for] an adulteress and unceasing from sin, enticing unstable persons, [and] having hearts trained for greediness. Accursed children! [By] leaving the straight path, they have gone astray, [because they] followed the way of Balaam the [son of] Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness,









(I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) For just as you presented your members [as] slaves to immorality and lawlessness, [leading] to lawlessness, so now present your members [as] slaves to righteousness, [leading] to sanctification.

Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to immorality, [that] their bodies would be dishonored among themselves,



the one who says to a king, 'You worthless man,' to noblemen, 'You wicked man,'



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







For many live, of whom I spoke about to you many times, but now speak about even weeping, [as] the enemies of the cross of Christ,

above all knowing this, that in the last days scoffers will come with scoffing, following according to their own desires

Yet they did not obey, and they did not incline their ear, but they walked in [their own] plans, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and {they became worse instead of better}.

And then when he hears the words of this oath, then {he will assure himself} in his heart, {saying}, '{Safety shall be mine even though I go in the stubbornness of my heart},' thereby destroying the well-watered [land] [along] with the parched.

for they said to you, "In the end time there will be scoffers following according to their own ungodly desires."



But the one {who acts presumptuously} from among the native or alien blasphemes against Yahweh, and that person must be cut off from the midst of the people.

Woe [to the] one who strives with his {maker}, a potsherd among potsherds of earth! Does [the] clay say to the one who fashions it, 'What are you making?' and 'Your work has no hands'?


However, the prophet that behaves presumptuously by speaking a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, and who speaks in the name of other gods, then that prophet shall die.'

nor put Christ to the test, as some of them tested [him], and were destroyed by snakes,

You shall not put Yahweh your God to [the] test, as you tested [him] at Massah.





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



and especially those who go after the flesh in defiling lust and who despise authority. Bold [and] arrogant, they do not tremble in awe [as they] blaspheme majestic beings, whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a demeaning judgment.



She is loud and stubborn; her feet do not stay at her house.



She is loud and stubborn; her feet do not stay at her house.


But there were also false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you also, who will bring in {destructive heresies}, even denying the Master who bought them, [thus] bringing on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their licentious ways, because of whom the way of truth will be reviled. And in greediness they will exploit you with false words, whose condemnation [from] long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. read more.
For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but held [them] captive in Tartarus with chains of darkness [and] handed [them] over to be kept for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, {and seven others} [when he] brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes, having appointed [them] [as] an example for those who are going to be ungodly, and rescued righteous Lot, worn down by the way of life of lawless persons in licentiousness (for that righteous man, [as he] lived among them day after day, was tormenting [his] righteous soul by the lawless deeds [he was] seeing and hearing), [then] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to reserve the unrighteous to be punished at the day of judgment, and especially those who go after the flesh in defiling lust and who despise authority. Bold [and] arrogant, they do not tremble in awe [as they] blaspheme majestic beings, whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a demeaning judgment. But these persons, like irrational animals born [only with] natural [instincts] for capture and killing, blaspheming {about things} they do not understand, in their destruction will also be destroyed, being harmed [as the] wages of unrighteousness. Considering reveling in the daytime a pleasure, [they are] stains and blemishes, carousing in their deceitful pleasures [when they] feast together with you, having eyes full of [desire for] an adulteress and unceasing from sin, enticing unstable persons, [and] having hearts trained for greediness. Accursed children! [By] leaving the straight path, they have gone astray, [because they] followed the way of Balaam the [son of] Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but received a rebuke for his own lawlessness: a speechless donkey, speaking with a human voice, restrained {the prophet's madness}. These [people] are waterless springs and mists driven by a hurricane, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved. {For by speaking high-sounding but empty words}, they entice with desires of the flesh [and] with licentiousness those who are scarcely escaping from those who live in error, promising them freedom [although they] themselves are slaves of depravity. For to whatever someone succumbs, by this he is also enslaved.





For many live, of whom I spoke about to you many times, but now speak about even weeping, [as] the enemies of the cross of Christ,

above all knowing this, that in the last days scoffers will come with scoffing, following according to their own desires

Yet they did not obey, and they did not incline their ear, but they walked in [their own] plans, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and {they became worse instead of better}.

And then when he hears the words of this oath, then {he will assure himself} in his heart, {saying}, '{Safety shall be mine even though I go in the stubbornness of my heart},' thereby destroying the well-watered [land] [along] with the parched.

for they said to you, "In the end time there will be scoffers following according to their own ungodly desires."



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


Stretch out your hands from on high; Rescue me and deliver me from many waters, from [the] hand of foreigners, whose mouth speaks falsely, and their right hand [is] a false right hand. O God, I will sing a new song to you. With a lyre of ten [strings] I will sing praise to you, read more.
who gives victory to kings, who rescues David his servant from [the] evil sword. Rescue me and deliver me from [the] hand of foreigners, whose mouth speaks falsely, and whose right hand [is] a false right hand,

Because the household gods speak deceit, and those who practice divination see a lie, and the dreamers of vanity speak in vain. Therefore [the people] wander like sheep; they are afflicted because there is no shepherd.

Thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Alas, for the foolish prophets who [are] going after their [own] spirit, {and they did not see anything}! Your prophets have been like foxes among ruins. You did not go up into the breaches and repair a wall for the house of Israel to stand [firm] in the battle on the day of Yahweh. read more.
They saw falseness and {a lying divination}, the ones saying, 'Declaration of Yahweh!' and Yahweh did not send them, and they wait {for the confirmation of their word}. Have you not seen {a false vision} and spoken {lying divination}, and [you] said, 'Declaration of Yahweh!' but {I myself did not speak}. Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Because of your speaking falseness and [because] you envisioned a lie, therefore, look! I [am] against you!" {declares} the Lord Yahweh. "And it will be my hand against the prophets who [are] seeing falseness and who [are] practicing lying divination. They will not be in the council of my people, and they will not be written [down] in the record [book] of the house of Israel, and into the land of Israel they will not come, and [then] you will know that I [am] the Lord Yahweh. Because, yes, because they led my people astray, {saying} 'Peace!' And [there is] not peace. And [when] anyone builds a flimsy wall, look, they coat it [with] whitewash.

But there were also false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you also, who will bring in {destructive heresies}, even denying the Master who bought them, [thus] bringing on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their licentious ways, because of whom the way of truth will be reviled. And in greediness they will exploit you with false words, whose condemnation [from] long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. read more.
For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but held [them] captive in Tartarus with chains of darkness [and] handed [them] over to be kept for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, {and seven others} [when he] brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes, having appointed [them] [as] an example for those who are going to be ungodly, and rescued righteous Lot, worn down by the way of life of lawless persons in licentiousness (for that righteous man, [as he] lived among them day after day, was tormenting [his] righteous soul by the lawless deeds [he was] seeing and hearing), [then] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to reserve the unrighteous to be punished at the day of judgment, and especially those who go after the flesh in defiling lust and who despise authority. Bold [and] arrogant, they do not tremble in awe [as they] blaspheme majestic beings, whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a demeaning judgment. But these persons, like irrational animals born [only with] natural [instincts] for capture and killing, blaspheming {about things} they do not understand, in their destruction will also be destroyed, being harmed [as the] wages of unrighteousness. Considering reveling in the daytime a pleasure, [they are] stains and blemishes, carousing in their deceitful pleasures [when they] feast together with you, having eyes full of [desire for] an adulteress and unceasing from sin, enticing unstable persons, [and] having hearts trained for greediness. Accursed children! [By] leaving the straight path, they have gone astray, [because they] followed the way of Balaam the [son of] Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but received a rebuke for his own lawlessness: a speechless donkey, speaking with a human voice, restrained {the prophet's madness}. These [people] are waterless springs and mists driven by a hurricane, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved. {For by speaking high-sounding but empty words}, they entice with desires of the flesh [and] with licentiousness those who are scarcely escaping from those who live in error,


as Sodom and Gomorrah and the towns around them indulged in sexual immorality and {pursued unnatural desire} [in] the same way as these, are exhibited as an example [by] undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. Despite that, in the same way also these [men], [because of their] dreams, defile the flesh and reject authority and blaspheme majestic beings. But Michael the archangel, when he argued with the devil, disputing concerning the body of Moses, did not dare to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" read more.
But these persons blaspheme all that they do not understand, and all that they understand by instinct like the irrational animals, by these [things] they are being destroyed.

A heart of righteousness will ponder the answer, but a mouth of wickedness will pour out deceit.

But to the wicked God says, "What [right] have you to recite my statutes and {mention my covenant with your mouth}, while you yourself hate discipline, and cast my words behind you? When you see a thief, then you are pleased with him, and your association [is] with adulterers. read more.
You give your mouth free rein for evil, and you harness your tongue to deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your mother's son.

But there were also false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you also, who will bring in {destructive heresies}, even denying the Master who bought them, [thus] bringing on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their licentious ways, because of whom the way of truth will be reviled. And in greediness they will exploit you with false words, whose condemnation [from] long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. read more.
For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but held [them] captive in Tartarus with chains of darkness [and] handed [them] over to be kept for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, {and seven others} [when he] brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes, having appointed [them] [as] an example for those who are going to be ungodly, and rescued righteous Lot, worn down by the way of life of lawless persons in licentiousness (for that righteous man, [as he] lived among them day after day, was tormenting [his] righteous soul by the lawless deeds [he was] seeing and hearing), [then] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to reserve the unrighteous to be punished at the day of judgment, and especially those who go after the flesh in defiling lust and who despise authority. Bold [and] arrogant, they do not tremble in awe [as they] blaspheme majestic beings, whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a demeaning judgment. But these persons, like irrational animals born [only with] natural [instincts] for capture and killing, blaspheming {about things} they do not understand, in their destruction will also be destroyed,


But there were also false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you also, who will bring in {destructive heresies}, even denying the Master who bought them, [thus] bringing on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their licentious ways, because of whom the way of truth will be reviled. And in greediness they will exploit you with false words, whose condemnation [from] long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. read more.
For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but held [them] captive in Tartarus with chains of darkness [and] handed [them] over to be kept for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, {and seven others} [when he] brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes, having appointed [them] [as] an example for those who are going to be ungodly, and rescued righteous Lot, worn down by the way of life of lawless persons in licentiousness (for that righteous man, [as he] lived among them day after day, was tormenting [his] righteous soul by the lawless deeds [he was] seeing and hearing), [then] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to reserve the unrighteous to be punished at the day of judgment, and especially those who go after the flesh in defiling lust and who despise authority. Bold [and] arrogant, they do not tremble in awe [as they] blaspheme majestic beings, whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a demeaning judgment. But these persons, like irrational animals born [only with] natural [instincts] for capture and killing, blaspheming {about things} they do not understand, in their destruction will also be destroyed, being harmed [as the] wages of unrighteousness. Considering reveling in the daytime a pleasure, [they are] stains and blemishes, carousing in their deceitful pleasures [when they] feast together with you, having eyes full of [desire for] an adulteress and unceasing from sin, enticing unstable persons, [and] having hearts trained for greediness. Accursed children! [By] leaving the straight path, they have gone astray, [because they] followed the way of Balaam the [son of] Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but received a rebuke for his own lawlessness: a speechless donkey, speaking with a human voice, restrained {the prophet's madness}. These [people] are waterless springs and mists driven by a hurricane, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved. {For by speaking high-sounding but empty words}, they entice with desires of the flesh [and] with licentiousness those who are scarcely escaping from those who live in error, promising them freedom [although they] themselves are slaves of depravity. For to whatever someone succumbs, by this he is also enslaved.

"Those are among [the ones] rebelling [against the] light; they do not recognize his ways, and they do not stay in his paths. {At dusk} the murderer rises; he kills [the] needy and [the] poor, and in the night he is like a thief. And [the] eye of [the] adulterer waits for dusk, saying, {'No eye will see me,'} and he places a covering [on his] face. read more.
He digs through houses in the darkness; by day they shut themselves in-- they do not know [the] light because morning likewise is to them deep darkness; indeed, they know about [the] terrors of deep darkness. "He himself [is] swift on [the] water's surface; their portion is cursed in the land. {No one turns toward the path of their vineyards}.

Discretion will watch over you; understanding will protect you, [in order] to deliver you from the way of evil, from a man who speaks devious things-- those who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in ways of darkness, read more.
those who are happy to do evil, [for] they delight in [the] deviousness of evil, {who are crooked in their ways}, and devious in their paths; [in order] to deliver you from a strange woman, from a foreign woman [who] flatters [with] her sayings, she who forsakes the partner of her youth and has forgotten the covenant of her God, for her house sinks to death, and to the dead are her paths. [Of] all who go to her, none shall return, nor do they reach paths of life.

For before the eyes of Yahweh [are] {human ways}, and all his paths he examines. His iniquities shall ensnare him, the evildoer, and in the vanity of his sin he shall be caught. He shall die {for lack of} discipline, and in the greatness of his folly he shall be lost.


But there were also false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you also, who will bring in {destructive heresies}, even denying the Master who bought them, [thus] bringing on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their licentious ways, because of whom the way of truth will be reviled. And in greediness they will exploit you with false words, whose condemnation [from] long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. read more.
For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but held [them] captive in Tartarus with chains of darkness [and] handed [them] over to be kept for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, {and seven others} [when he] brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes, having appointed [them] [as] an example for those who are going to be ungodly, and rescued righteous Lot, worn down by the way of life of lawless persons in licentiousness (for that righteous man, [as he] lived among them day after day, was tormenting [his] righteous soul by the lawless deeds [he was] seeing and hearing), [then] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to reserve the unrighteous to be punished at the day of judgment, and especially those who go after the flesh in defiling lust and who despise authority. Bold [and] arrogant, they do not tremble in awe [as they] blaspheme majestic beings, whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a demeaning judgment. But these persons, like irrational animals born [only with] natural [instincts] for capture and killing, blaspheming {about things} they do not understand, in their destruction will also be destroyed, being harmed [as the] wages of unrighteousness. Considering reveling in the daytime a pleasure, [they are] stains and blemishes, carousing in their deceitful pleasures [when they] feast together with you, having eyes full of [desire for] an adulteress and unceasing from sin, enticing unstable persons, [and] having hearts trained for greediness. Accursed children! [By] leaving the straight path, they have gone astray, [because they] followed the way of Balaam the [son of] Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but received a rebuke for his own lawlessness: a speechless donkey, speaking with a human voice, restrained {the prophet's madness}. These [people] are waterless springs and mists driven by a hurricane, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved. {For by speaking high-sounding but empty words}, they entice with desires of the flesh [and] with licentiousness those who are scarcely escaping from those who live in error, promising them freedom [although they] themselves are slaves of depravity. For to whatever someone succumbs, by this he is also enslaved. For if, [after they] have escaped from the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled in these [things] [and] succumb to [them], the last [state] has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known [it], to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them. The [statement] of the true proverb has happened to them, "A dog returns to its own vomit," and "A sow, [after] washing herself, [returns] to wallowing in the mud."





For many live, of whom I spoke about to you many times, but now speak about even weeping, [as] the enemies of the cross of Christ,

above all knowing this, that in the last days scoffers will come with scoffing, following according to their own desires

Yet they did not obey, and they did not incline their ear, but they walked in [their own] plans, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and {they became worse instead of better}.

And then when he hears the words of this oath, then {he will assure himself} in his heart, {saying}, '{Safety shall be mine even though I go in the stubbornness of my heart},' thereby destroying the well-watered [land] [along] with the parched.

for they said to you, "In the end time there will be scoffers following according to their own ungodly desires."


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