But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there shall be among you lying teachers, who shall bring in sects of perdition, and deny the Lord who bought them: bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

Fuerunt vero et pseudoprophetæ in populo, sicut et in vobis erunt magistri mendaces, qui introducent sectas perditionis: et eum qui emit eos, Dominum negant, superducentes sibi celerem perditionem.

There were false prophets, too, among God’s people. So, among you, there will be false teachers, covertly introducing pernicious ways of thought, and denying the Master who redeemed them, to their own speedy undoing.

And many shall follow their riotousness, through whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

Et multi sequentur eorum luxurias, per quos via veritatis blasphemabitur:

Many will embrace their wanton creeds, and bring the way of truth into disrepute,

And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you. Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their perdition slumbereth not.

et in avaritia fictis verbis de vobis negotiabuntur: quibus judicium jam olim non cessat: et perditio eorum non dormitat.

trading on your credulity with lying stories for their own ends. Long since, the warrant for their doom is in full vigour; destruction is on the watch for them.

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them, drawn down by infernal ropes to the lower hell, unto torments, to be reserved unto judgment:

Si enim Deus angelis peccantibus non pepercit, sed rudentibus inferni detractos in tartarum tradidit cruciandos, in judicium reservari.

God did not spare the angels who fell into sin; he thrust them down to hell, chained them there in the abyss, to await their sentence in torment.

And spared not the original world, but preserved Noe, the eighth person, the preacher of justice, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.

Et originali mundo non pepercit, sed octavum Noë justitiæ præconem custodivit, diluvium mundo impiorum inducens.

Nor did he spare the world he had first made; he brought a flood on that world of wickedness, preserving Noe, who had borne witness to holiness, and only seven others with him.

And reducing the cities of the Sodomites, and of the Gomorrhites, into ashes, condemned them to be overthrown, making them an example to those that should after act wickedly.

Et civitates Sodomorum et Gomorrhæorum in cinerem redigens, eversione damnavit: exemplum eorum, qui impie acturi sunt, ponens:

The cities of Sodom and Gomorrha, too, he punished with utter ruin, turning them to ashes, for an example to the godless of a later time.

And delivered just Lot, oppressed by the injustice and lewd conversation of the wicked.

et justum Lot oppressum a nefandorum injuria, ac luxuriosa conversatione eripuit:

Yet he saved Lot, an innocent man who was overborne by the violence and the wantonness of his wicked neighbours;

For in sight and hearing he was just: dwelling among them, who from day to day vexed the just soul with unjust works.

aspectu enim, et auditu justus erat: habitans apud eos, qui de die in diem animam justam iniquis operibus cruciabant.

eye and ear could testify to his innocence, although he lived among men whose lawless doings, day after day, wrung that blameless heart.

The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly from temptation, but to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be tormented.

Novit Dominus pios de tentatione eripere: iniquos vero in diem judicii reservare cruciandos.

The Lord does not find it difficult to save his true worshippers from their trials, while the wrong-doers must await the day of judgement, marked down for torment;

And especially them who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government, audacious, self willed, they fear not to bring in sects, blaspheming.

Magis autem eos, qui post carnem in concupiscentia immunditiæ ambulant, dominationemque contemnunt, audaces, sibi placentes, sectas non metuunt introducere blasphemantes:

those especially, who follow the defiling appetites of their corrupt nature, and make light of authority. So bold are they, so obstinate, that they are not afraid to bring in new and blasphemous ways of thought,

Whereas angels who are greater in strength and power, bring not against themselves a railing judgment.

ubi angeli fortitudine, et virtute cum sint majores, non portant adversum se execrabile judicium.

whereas angels, with a strength and a capacity far above theirs, do not bring on themselves any charge so abominable.

But these men, as irrational beasts, naturally tending to the snare and to destruction, blaspheming those things which they know not, shall perish in their corruption,

Hi vero velut irrationabilia pecora, naturaliter in captionem, et in perniciem in his quæ ignorant blasphemantes in corruptione sua peribunt,

Such men, like dumb creatures that are born to be trapped and destroyed, sneer at what they cannot understand, and will soon perish in their own corruption;

Receiving the reward of their injustice, counting for a pleasure the delights of a day: stains and spots, sporting themselves to excess, rioting in their feasts with you:

percipientes mercedem injustitiæ, voluptatem existimantes diei delicias: coinquinationes, et maculæ deliciis affluentes, in conviviis suis luxuriantes vobiscum,

they will have the reward their wickedness has deserved. To live in luxury while the day lasts is all their pleasure; what a stain they are, what a disfigurement, when they revel in the luxury of their own banquets, as they fare sumptuously at your side!

Having eyes full of adultery and of sin that ceaseth not: alluring unstable souls, having their heart exercised with covetousness, children of malediction:

oculos habentes plenos adulterii, et incessabilis delicti. Pellicientes animas instabiles, cor exercitatum avaritia habentes, maledictionis filii:

Their eyes feast on adultery, insatiable of sin; and they know how to win wavering souls to their purpose, so skilled is all their accursed brood at gaining its own ends.

Leaving the right way they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam of Bosor, who loved the wages of iniquity,

derelinquentes rectam viam erraverunt, secuti viam Balaam ex Bosor, qui mercedem iniquitatis amavit:

They have gone far astray, leaving the true path, and following the path of Balaam the son of Bosor, the man who was content to take pay in the cause of wrong,

But had a check of his madness, the dumb beast used to the yoke, which speaking with man’s voice, forbade the folly of the prophet.

correptionem vero habuit suæ vesaniæ: subjugale mutum animal, hominis voce loquens, prohibuit prophetæ insipientiam.

and was rebuked for his perversity, when the dumb beast spoke with a human voice, to bring a prophet to his senses.

These are fountains without water, and clouds tossed with whirlwinds, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved.

Hi sunt fontes sine aqua, et nebulæ turbinibus exagitatæ, quibus caligo tenebrarum reservatur.

They are wells with no water in them, clouds driven before the storm; the lot that awaits them is darkness and gloom.

For, speaking proud words of vanity, they allure by the desires of fleshly riotousness, those who for a little while escape, such as converse in error:

Superba enim vanitatis loquentes, pelliciunt in desideriis carnis luxuriæ eos, qui paululum effugiunt, qui in errore conversantur:

Using fine phrases that have no meaning, they bait their hook with the wanton appetites of sense, to catch those who have had but a short respite from false teaching.

Promising them liberty, whereas they themselves are the slaves of corruption. For by whom a man is overcome, of the same also he is the slave.

libertatem illis promittentes, cum ipsi servi sint corruptionem: a quo enim quis superatus est, hujus et servus est.

What do they offer them? Liberty. And all the time they themselves are enslaved to worldly corruption; whatever influence gets the better of a man, becomes his master.

For if, flying from the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they be again entangled in them and overcome: their latter state is become unto them worse than the former.

Si enim refugientes coinquinationes mundi in cognitione Domini nostri, et Salvatoris Jesu Christi, his rursus implicati superantur: facta sunt eis posteriora deteriora prioribus.

That they should have been rescued, by acknowledging our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, from the world’s pollution, and then been entangled and overpowered by it a second time, means that their last state is worse than the first.

For it had been better for them not to have known the way of justice, than after they have known it, to turn back from that holy commandment which was delivered to them.

Melius enim erat illis non cognoscere viam justitiæ, quam post agnitionem, retrorsum converti ab eo, quod illis traditum est, sancto mandato.

Better for them, never to have found their way to justification, than to have found it, and then turned their backs on the holy law once handed down to them.

For, that of the true proverb has happened to them: The dog is returned to his vomit: and, The sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire.

Contigit enim eis illud veri proverbii: Canis reversus ad suum vomitum: et, Sus lota in volutabro luti.

What has happened to them proves the truth of the proverb, The dog is back at his own vomit again. Wash the sow, and you find her wallowing in the mire.