⁷ but if the animal doesn’t have both, it may not be eaten. So you may not eat the camel, the hare, or the hyrax.^[a] They chew the cud but do not have split hooves, so they are ceremonially unclean for you.

¹⁸ They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting. With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception. ¹⁹ They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you. ²⁰ And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. ²¹ It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. ²² They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.”^[a] And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.”

¹⁶ Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good.

⁵ They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!

²⁶ But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand.

²² On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ ²³ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’

⁵ The hyrax^[a] chews the cud but does not have split hooves, so it is unclean.