Jude 1:5
What does Jude 1:5 mean?
A plain-English look at Jude 1:5 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Jude 1:5 means
Jude reminds readers of a familiar but sobering truth: the Lord saved a people out of Egypt, yet later destroyed those who did not believe. Deliverance from bondage was not a guarantee against judgment for unbelief. Privilege without faith and obedience leads to ruin. Jude uses Israel’s wilderness unbelief to warn the church that beginning well is not the same as finishing well. God is both Redeemer and Judge. The example shows that belonging outwardly to the community of the saved does not exempt those who persist in disbelief. The call to contend includes a call to keep trusting and obeying the God who rescues and also disciplines.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000Now I desire to put you in remembrance, though ye know all things once for all, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
KJV
King James Version · 1611I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901Now I desire to put you in remembrance, though ye know all things once for all, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949Now it is my purpose to put you in mind, though you once had knowledge of all these things, of how the Lord, having taken a people safely out of Egypt, later sent destruction on those who had no faith;
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862and to remind you I intend, you knowing once this, that the Lord, a people out of the land of Egypt having saved, again those who did not believe did destroy;
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752I will therefore admonish you, though ye once knew all things, that Jesus, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, did afterwards destroy them that believed not.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890But I would put you in remembrance, you who once knew all things, that the Lord, having saved a people out of [the] land of Egypt, in the second place destroyed those who had not believed.
Context
This is the first of three historical examples that demonstrate the certainty of divine judgment. It follows Jude’s exposure of the infiltrators and sets a pattern: rescue followed by judgment on unbelief. Verse 6 moves from human rebellion to angelic rebellion, widening the scope to the heavenly realm. Verse 7 then focuses on cities judged for sexual immorality. Together, the trio prepares readers to recognize the present false teachers as part of a recurring pattern that God neither ignores nor spares, strengthening the warning that their end is certain unless they repent.
v.4For there are certain men crept in privily, even they who were of old written of beforehand unto this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
v.5This passage
v.6And angels that kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Numbers 26:64
But among these there was not a man of them that were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.
- Deuteronomy 2:15
Moreover the hand of Jehovah was against them, to destroy them from the midst of the camp, until they were consumed.
- Hebrews 3:16
For who, when they heard, did provoke? nay, did not all they that came out of Egypt by Moses?
- Psalms 106:26
Therefore he sware unto them, That he would overthrow them in the wilderness,
- Numbers 14:22
because all those men that have seen my glory, and my signs, which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;
- 1 Corinthians 10:1
For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
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