¹⁷ These men are dried-up springs, mere clouds driven by a storm. Gloomy darkness is reserved for them. ¹⁸ By talking high-sounding nonsense and using sinful cravings of the flesh, they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error. ¹⁹ Promising them freedom, they themselves are slaves to depravity, for a person is a slave to whatever conquers him.

²⁰ For if, after escaping the world’s corruptions through a full knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Messiah,^[a] they are again entangled and conquered by those corruptions,^[b] then their last condition is worse than their former one. ²¹ It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to know it and turn their backs on the holy commandment that was committed to them. ²² The proverb is true that describes what has happened to them: “A dog returns to its vomit,”^[c] and “A pig that is washed goes back to wallow in the mud.”^[d]