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When these people eat with you in your fellowship meals commemorating the Lord’s love, they are like dangerous reefs that can shipwreck you. They are like shameless shepherds who care only for themselves. They are like clouds blowing over the land without giving any rain. They are like trees in autumn that are doubly dead, for they bear no fruit and have been pulled up by the roots.
Jude 1:12 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB These are hidden rocky reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you, shepherds who without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
  • KJV These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
  • BSB These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted.
  • NKJV These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots;
  • NASB These are the ones who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, like shepherds caring only for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted;

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

The false teachers are hidden dangers at the church's love feasts, selfish shepherds, and fruitless, lifeless things.

Overview

Jude piles up vivid images to expose the emptiness and peril of these men. They are like submerged reefs that wreck the fellowship meals, shepherds who feed only themselves, waterless clouds that promise but give nothing, and autumn trees barren when fruit is due, twice dead and uprooted. Each picture underscores that they offer no spiritual nourishment and stand under God's judgment.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 32

  • Matt 15:13But he answered, “Every plant which my heavenly Father didn’t plant will be uprooted.
  • 2 Pet 2:17–20These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.
  • Ezek 34:8As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely because my sheep became a prey, and my sheep became food to all the animals of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my sheep, but the shepherds fed themselves, and didn’t feed my sheep;
  • Eph 4:14that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;
  • Phil 3:19whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.
  • Prov 25:14As clouds and wind without rain, so is he who boasts of gifts deceptively.
  • 1 Cor 11:20–22When therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.
  • John 15:4–6Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me.
  • Luke 21:34“So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly.
  • 2 Pet 2:13–14receiving the wages of unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and defects, reveling in their deceit while they feast with you;
  • Ezek 34:10Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my sheep at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the sheep; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; and I will deliver my sheep from their mouth, that they may not be food for them.
  • Ezek 34:2Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and tell them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Shouldn’t the shepherds feed the sheep?
  • Luke 8:6Other seed fell on the rock, and as soon as it grew, it withered away, because it had no moisture.
  • Isa 56:10–12His watchmen are blind. They are all without knowledge. They are all mute dogs. They can’t bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.
  • Luke 12:45But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My lord delays his coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken,
  • Mark 11:20–21As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away from the roots.
  • Matt 13:6When the sun had risen, they were scorched. Because they had no root, they withered away.
  • 1 Th 5:6–7so then let’s not sleep, as the rest do, but let’s watch and be sober.
  • Heb 6:4–8For concerning those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
  • Matt 21:19–20Seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves. He said to it, “Let there be no fruit from you forever!” Immediately the fig tree withered away.
  • Mark 4:6When the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.
  • Ps 1:3He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that produces its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper.
  • Hos 6:4“Ephraim, what shall I do to you? Judah, what shall I do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew that disappears early.
  • Jas 5:5You have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
  • 1 Tim 5:6But she who gives herself to pleasure is dead while she lives.
  • Luke 16:19“Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day.
  • Ps 78:29–31So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.
  • 2 Chr 7:20then I will pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
  • Luke 12:19–20I will tell my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.”’
  • Ezek 17:9“Say, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Will it prosper? Won’t he pull up its roots, and cut off its fruit, that it may wither; that all its fresh springing leaves may wither? Not by a strong arm or many people can it be raised from its roots.
  • Ezek 34:18Does it seem a small thing to you to have fed on the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture? and to have drunk of the clear waters, but you must foul the residue with your feet?
  • Ps 37:2For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither like the green herb.

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Jude videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Jude 1:12YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JudeMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Christ is the one who keeps his people from stumbling and presents them blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy — the object of contending faith.

How Jude 1:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.