Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles

1There were, however, false prophets also among the people; as there will also be false teachers among you, who will stealthily bring in opinions of perdition, denying even the Lord who has redeemed them, bringing on themselves swift destruction.

2And many shall follow their ruinous courses, through whom the way of truth shall be blasphemed.

3And through avarice they shall make a trade of you by feigned words; whose judgment a long ago ceases not, and whose perdition does not slumber.

4For if God spared not the angels who had sinned, but having cast them into hell in chains of darkness, delivered them to be kept for judgment;

5And if he spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person,a preacher of righteousness, having brought in the flood on the world of the ungodly;

6And if having turned into ashes the cities of the Sodomites and of Gomorrah, he condemned themwith an overthrew, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly,

7And delivered the righteous Lot, who was vexed by the wicked through their lascivious conduct;

8For that righteous man, while dwelling among them, had by seeing and hearing his righteous soul daily tormented by their iniquitous deeds;

9The Lord. knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust for the day of judgment to be punished;

10And especially those who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government: audacious andrefractory, they fear not to blaspheme dignities,

11When angels, who are greater in strength and power, bring no railing judgment against them before the Lord.

12But these, as brute animals, naturally made to be taken and destroyed, blaspheming those things which they understand not, shall perish in their own corruption, receiving the reward of unrighteousness;

13Deeming riot in the day-time a pleasure, they areblots and stains, rioting in their own errors, while feasting with you;

14Having eyes full of adultery, which cease not from sin, ensnaring unstable souls, having a heart exercised in lusts, accursed children;

15Who having left the right way, have gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the reward of unrighteousness;

16But was reproved for his iniquity; a mute beast of burden, speaking with the human voice, restrained the madness of the prophet.

17These are fountains without, water, clouds driven by a tempest, for whom has been prepared thick darkness for ever.

18For when they speak most haughty words of vanity, they ensnare through the lusts of the flesh, by lasciviousness, those who had really escaped from such as live in error;

19While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the slaves of corruption; for by whom any one is overcome, to him is he brought into bondage.

20For if they who had escaped from the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, become again entangled with these, and are overcome, the last pollutionsbecome worse to them than the former:

21For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it,and to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them.

22But what is said in the true proverb has happened to them, "The dog has returned to his own vomit, and the washen sow to herwallowing in the mire."