¹⁸ It may be that there is among you a man or woman or a family or tribe whose heart is already turning away from the Lord our God to serve the gods of those nations. It may be that there is among you a root sprouting poisonous and bitter growth.^(A)

⁴⁵ You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and her children, and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. ⁴⁶ Your big sister is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you; your little sister, who lived to the south of you, is Sodom with her daughters.^{(A) 47} You not only followed their ways and acted according to their abominations; within a very little time you were more corrupt than they in all your ways.^{(B) 48} As I live, says the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.^{(C) 49} This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease but did not aid the poor and needy.^{(D) 50} They were haughty and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them when I saw it.^{(E) 51} Samaria has not committed half your sins; you have committed more abominations than they and have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have committed.^(F)

¹⁵ See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and through it many become defiled.^(A)