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13. ἀδικούμενοι μισθὸν ἀδικίας. This is the reading of א (first hand) BP, one Syriac version and the Armenian; whereas a corrector of א, ACKL, the Latin, Egyptian, and another Syriac version give the undoubtedly easier κομιούμενοι “destined to receive.” It has rather a close parallel in Col 3:25, ὁ γὰρ ἀδικῶν κομίσεται ὃ ἠδίκησεν. But the future (κομιούμενοι) is against the reading: all the other participles near by (and there are many) are in the present.
ἀδικούμενοι is quite hard to translate. I prefer the rendering of Tischendorf, “being defrauded in respect of the wages of iniquity.” μισθὸς ἀδικίας is used just below of Balaam: and like Balaam the false teachers will not receive the gain they hoped for, but destruction.
If it were permissible to take ἀδικεῖν in the sense which it often has in Rev. (e.g. Rev 7:2-3, etc.) of “hurting,” we might render “being hurt as the reward for harming.” But this is not in the manner of our author, and besides would seem to require ἀδικήσεως, not ἀδικίας.
ἡδονὴν ἡγούμενοι τὴν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ τρυφήν. This hard clause finds an explanation in the Psalms of Solomon (1st century B.C.) 14:4. “Not so are the sinners and transgressors οἳ ἠγάπησαν ἡμέραν ἐν μετοχῇ ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν, ἐν μικρότητι σαπρίας ἡ ἐπιθυμία (or ἐν ἐπιθυμίᾳ) αὐτῶν. They were contented with a day while they were partners together in sin: their desire was in (was satisfied with) a short space of corruption.” So these false teachers reckoned the shortlived enjoyment of a day to be true pleasure.
Another good interpretation depends on a passage in the Assumption of Moses (iv. 4). Those who are denounced are described as “omni hora diei amantes conuiuia.” This is in favour of the R.V. rendering, “men that count it pleasure to revel in the day-time.” Compare Rom 13:13 “let us walk honestly as in the day: not in revellings and drunkenness” etc.
σπίλοι καὶ μῶμοι, ἐντρυφῶντες ἐν ταῖς ἀπάταις αὐτῶν συνευωχούμενοι ὑμῖν. Jud 1:12 οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ ἐν ταῖς ἀγάπαις ὑμῶν σπιλάδες συνευωχούμενοι.
ἀπάταις is read by א, the first hand of A and C, KLP and others; for it B, the second hand of A and C, and the Latin have ἀγάπαις (agreeing with Jude). The addition of αὐτῶν here is “in favour of ἀπάταις.” So Mayor, who also points out that ἀπάταις and σπίλοι are characteristic modifications of the similar ἀγάπαις and σπιλάδες in Jude.
σπίλος occurs in Eph 5:27 μὴ ἔχουσαν σπίλον: and ἄσπιλος in our Epistle (2Pe 3:14): the verb σπιλόω in Jud 1:23 and also in Jam 3:6.
μῶμος, which in classical Greek means reproach or disgrace, is used to mean blemish (as it does here) in the LXX. of Leviticus. ἄμωμος is in Jud 1:24. See also 1Pe 1:19.
If we adopt the strongly supported reading ἀπάταις it is not easy to get a clear notion of the meaning of the clause. Two ways of taking it are suggested: (a) revelling when they join in your feasts, to which by their deceitful conduct they have gained admission; (b) revelling in their deceitfulness, when they feast with you. In any case the writer has in his mind the love-feast of the Christians which these men perverted and profaned.