¹⁷ These people are waterless springs and mists driven by a hurricane, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved. ¹⁸ For by speaking high-sounding but empty words^[a], they entice with desires of the flesh and with licentiousness those who are scarcely escaping from those who live in error, ¹⁹ promising them freedom although they^[b] themselves are slaves of depravity. For to whatever someone succumbs, by this he is also^[c] enslaved. ²⁰ For if, after they^[d] have escaped from the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord^[e] and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled in these things and succumb to them, the last state has become worse for them than the first. ²¹ For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them. ²² The statement of the true proverb has happened to them, “A dog returns to its own vomit,”^[f] and “A sow, after^[g] washing herself, returns^[h] to wallowing in the mud.”^[i]