¹⁵ They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of ^(A)Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; ¹⁶ but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.

^17 (B)These are wells without water, ^[a]clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness ^[b]forever.

Deceptions of False Teachers

¹⁸ For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who ^[c]have actually escaped from those who live in error. ¹⁹ While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of ^[d]corruption; ^(C)for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into ^[e]bondage. ²⁰ For if, after they ^(D)have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are ^(E)again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. ²¹ For ^(F)it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. ²² But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: ^(G)“A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”