Study Desk

Jude,^(a) a slave of Jesus Christ and a brother of James: To those who are the called,^(b) loved^[a](c) by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ.^(d)

May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.^(e)

Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about the salvation we share,^(f) I found it necessary to write and exhort you to contend for the faith^(g) that was delivered^(h) to the saints once for all.

For some men, who were designated for this judgment long ago,⁽ⁱ⁾ have come in by stealth;^(j) they are ungodly,^(k) turning the grace of our God into promiscuity and denying^(l) Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord.

Now I want to remind you, though you know all these things: The Lord^[b] first^[c] saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe;^(m)

and He has kept, with eternal chains in darkness for the judgment of the great day, the angels⁽ⁿ⁾ who did not keep their own position but deserted their proper dwelling.

In the same way, Sodom and Gomorrah^(o) and the cities around them committed sexual immorality and practiced perversions,^[d] just as angels did, and serve as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.^(p)

Nevertheless, these dreamers likewise defile their flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme glorious ones.^(q)

Yet Michael^(r) the archangel,^(s) when he was disputing with the Devil^(t) in a debate about Moses'^(u) body, did not dare bring an abusive condemnation against him but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"

But these people blaspheme anything they don't understand. What they know by instinct like unreasoning animals—they destroy themselves with these things.

Woe to them! For they have traveled in the way of Cain,^(v) have abandoned themselves to the error of Balaam^(w) for profit, and have perished in Korah's rebellion.^(x)

These are the ones who are like dangerous reefs^[e] at your love feasts.^(y) They feast with you, nurturing only themselves without fear. They are waterless clouds carried along by winds;^(z) trees in late autumn—fruitless, twice dead, pulled out by the roots;

wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shameful deeds; wandering stars^(aa) for whom the blackness of darkness^(ab) is reserved forever!^(ac)

And Enoch,^(ad) in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied about them: Look! The Lord comes^[f] with thousands of His holy ones^(ae)

to execute judgment on all and to convict them^[g] of all their ungodly^(af) acts that they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things ungodly sinners have said against Him.

These people are discontented grumblers, walking according to their desires;^(ag) their mouths utter arrogant words, flattering^(ah) people for their own advantage.