²⁰ For if they, having escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of [our] Lord and savior Jesus Christ, again become entangled and overcome by them, their last condition is worse than their first.^{(A) 21} For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment handed down^[a] to them.^{(B) 22 [b]}What is expressed in the true proverb has happened to them,^(C) “The dog returns to its own vomit,” and “A bathed sow returns to wallowing in the mire.”