Verse Lens · Expanded explanation

Jude 11 Explained in Context

Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.

Selected verse

Verse 11. Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Quick Meaning

The woe aligns their course with Cain, Balaam, and Korah without making every detail of those stories identical.

Read It With

  • Jude 11–13

Read Jude 11–13 as a complete section. The three named precedents in verse 11 and the images in verses 12–13 converge on self-serving, fruitless, unstable danger and judgment.

Why This Verse Appears Here

Jude begins a new denunciatory sequence by naming Cain, Balaam, and Korah as overlapping patterns of destructive conduct.

Read Jude 1:11–13 together

Why these verses belong together: The Cain-Balaam-Korah woe and six images converge on self-serving, fruitless, unstable danger and judgment.

Verse 11. Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

Verse 12. 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;

Verse 13. Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

Follow the Context

  1. Jude pronounces woe through the way of Cain, Balaam's error for reward, and Korah's rebellion.
  2. The intruders are hidden dangers or spots in communal love feasts and shepherd only themselves.
  3. Cloud and tree images expose promised benefit without water or fruit and a state of death and uprooting.
  4. Wave and wandering-star images display shame, instability, and darkness reserved for them.

What This Verse Is Not Saying

Jude 11 does not make every detail of Cain's, Balaam's, and Korah's stories apply identically to the intruders or to modern opponents.

What Remains True

Cain, Balaam, and Korah expose a trajectory of destructive way, corrupt gain, and rebellion.

How It Can Shape Life

  • Examine whether influence is shaped by care and truth or by resentment, profit, and resistance to rightful accountability.

Teach It Back

Explain Jude 11's specific contribution to Jude 11–13: The woe aligns their course with Cain, Balaam, and Korah without making every detail of those stories identical. Include the surrounding movement, one uncertainty or limit where relevant, and what the verse does not permit readers to conclude.

Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.

Continue in Context

The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.

Read Jude 11–13 — Cain, Balaam, Korah, and Images of Empty Danger
Sources used for this Verse Lens

How certain is this explanation? strong

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: The exact displayed KJV wording and immediate English context for Jude 11–13.

Exact location: eBible/CrossWire eng-kjv2006 USFM, source files dated 2026-08-19, Jude 1, verses within Jude 11–13; archive and normalized-corpus SHA-256 values are recorded in the library policy.

Open source ↗

Greek textual evidence

The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition

Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos

Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010

Supports: The critically edited Greek wording, clause relationships, and visible variation markers checked for the passage.

Exact location: Faithlife SBLGNT repository, data/sblgnt/text/Jude.txt, verses within Jude 11–13.

Open the Jude Greek text file ↗

Translation and textual notes

NET Bible — Jude with translators' notes

Biblical Studies Press

Biblical Studies Press, 2005–2026 online edition

Supports: Material translation choices, syntax questions, and textual variants checked for this passage.

Exact location: NET Bible, Jude 1, translator and textual notes attached to the verses in Jude 11–13.

Open source ↗
Open the complete thought-unit research record
Open a verse without taking it out of context.

Try Jude 3, or Jud 3.

Choose book, chapter, and verse