Jude 1:13 (ASV)

Passage

Wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved forever.

Nearby Context

Jude 1:11 Woe unto them! For they went in the way of Cain, and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah.

Jude 1:12 These are they who are hidden rocks in your love-feasts when they feast with you, shepherds that without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn leaves without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

Jude 1:13 Wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved forever.

Jude 1:14 And to these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones,

Jude 1:15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness which they have ungodly wrought, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "darkness", "wild", "waves", "foaming", "shame", "wandering", "stars", and "blackness". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "darkness" and "wild", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 12's "These are they who are hidden rocks..." into verse 14's "And to these also Enoch the seventh...", so "darkness" and "wild" belong inside that flow. In Jude context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "darkness" and "wild" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.