¹² It was one of them, their very own prophet, who said,

¹⁸ For such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites,^[a] and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded.^(A)

² through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared with a hot iron.

²⁸ For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,

¹⁵ They have left the straight road and have gone astray, following the road of Balaam son of Bosor,^[a] who loved the wages of doing wrong^(A)

⁸ Yet in the same way these dreamers also defile the flesh, reject authority, and slander the glorious ones.^{[a](A) 9} But when the archangel Michael disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, he did not dare to bring a condemnation of slander^[b] against him but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”^{(B) 10} But these people slander whatever they do not understand, and they are destroyed by those things that, like irrational animals, they know by instinct. ¹¹ Woe to them! For they go the way of Cain and abandon themselves to Balaam’s error for the sake of gain and perish in Korah’s rebellion.^{(C) 12} These are blots^[c] on your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, feeding themselves.^[d] They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted;^{(D) 13} wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever.^(E)

¹² These people, however, are like irrational animals, mere creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed. They slander what they do not understand, and as those creatures are destroyed,^[a] they also will be destroyed,

¹¹ Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”