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Jude 1:12-16 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)

¹² These are the men who are hidden rocks in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, carried along by winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted; ¹³ wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shameful deeds; wandering stars for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever.

Prophecy of Enoch

¹⁴ It was also about these men that Enoch, the seventh one in line from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Look, the Lord came with tens of thousands of his holy ones, ¹⁵ to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly concerning all their ungodly deeds that they did in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners[10] have spoken against him.” ¹⁶ These men are murmurers, finding fault, following their own desires, and their mouths make excessive boasts, flattering people[11] for their own advantage.

MORE PICTURES OF PATHETIC LIVES Jude 12–16

Next Jude warns his readers by describing the polluting influence of the “certain men” (v. 4) on the Church’s holy feasts, their self-serving nature, their empty promises, their hypocritical lives, their shameful lifestyle, and most importantly, their dire destiny. The consequential descriptions of all of these are twice dead (v. 12) and for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever (v. 13). It seems that Jude is maxing out the “fear-threat” approach to reach the infiltrators—and anyone who is even remotely impressed or persuaded by them.

Again, Jude takes a quote from Enoch: See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone (v. 14). He predicts that God will convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him (v. 15). It literally can wear you out to try to comprehend the nature of the problem.

Jude 1:14 BDC: Why is Jude here quoting from the uninspired Book of Enoch as though it were Inspired?

After the horrifying judgment to be brought on these poor souls, it is alarming to read the next set of descriptions about them: These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage (v. 16).

Read the list again. It is easy to join Jude in animosity toward these rascals; yet it is stunning to see this list and realize that if this describes the enemy, the enemy may sometimes be us. It is not that hard for the average Christian to identify struggles we have with some of those very temptations. In all of my years of reading this “smoking” letter, I have never allowed myself to realize how culpable I really was to some of the sins that Jude lists. But that is human nature; we project a lot of things on others when we are guilty of the very things for which we criticize and condemn them. May God help us to have the capacity that Jesus mentioned—to see the beam in our own eye (Matt. 7:1–5).^[1]

By David A. Case and David W. Holdren

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^[1] David A. Case and David W. Holdren, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude: A Commentary for Bible Students (Indianapolis, IN: Wesleyan Publishing House, 2006), 371–372.

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