Bible Strands
Jude 1:13
They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jude addresses early Christians to warn them about false teachers infiltrating their gatherings. He delivers this warning immediately after cataloging these individuals as hidden reefs, fruitless trees, and clouds without water.
The words — The text employs ἄγρια (agria), meaning wild, and ἐπαφρίζοντα (epaphrizonta), meaning foaming out, to describe the subject's chaotic nature. These terms literally depict sea waves churning up their own mud or shame.
The thread — The passage describes the false teachers as wandering stars destined for eternal darkness. This same pairing of uncontrolled waters and reserved darkness appears in Isaiah 57:20 and 2 Peter 2:17.
Why it lands — The text demands that readers recognize and distance themselves from leaders whose actions produce only self-exalting chaos. It requires concrete discernment against those who promise spiritual guidance while leaving only darkness.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
Cross-references
- 2 Peter 2:17 These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.
- Philippians 3:19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.
- Isaiah 57:20 But the wicked are like the storm-tossed sea, for it cannot be still, and its waves churn up mire and muck.
- Psalms 65:7 You stilled the roaring of the seas, the pounding of their waves, and the tumult of the nations.
- 2 Timothy 3:13 while evil men and imposters go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
- Revelation 14:10 he too will drink the wine of God’s anger, poured undiluted into the cup of His wrath. And he will be tormented in fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.
- Revelation 20:10 And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, into which the beast and the false prophet had already been thrown. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
- Psalms 93:3 The floodwaters have risen, O LORD; the rivers have raised their voice; the seas lift up their pounding waves.
- Jeremiah 5:22 Do you not fear Me?” declares the LORD. “Do you not tremble before Me, the One who set the sand as the boundary for the sea, an enduring barrier it cannot cross? The waves surge, but they cannot prevail. They roar but cannot cross it.
- Revelation 8:10 Then the third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star burning like a torch fell from heaven and landed on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.