¹⁷ These are springs without water, and mists driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved. ¹⁸ For, uttering great swelling words of vanity, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by lasciviousness, those who are just escaping from them that live in error; ¹⁹ promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for of ^[a]whom a man is overcome, of the same is he also brought into bondage. ²⁰ For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of ^[b]the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the last state is become worse with them than the first. ²¹ For it were better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered unto them. ²² It has happened unto them according to the true proverb, ^[c]The dog turning to his own vomit again, and the sow that had washed to wallowing in the mire.