²⁰ “Again, when a ^(A)righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand.

²⁴ “But ^(A)when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? ^(B)All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die.

¹⁸ When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man ^(A)shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.

The Fairness of God’s Judgment

¹² “Therefore you, O son of man, say to the children of your people: ‘The ^(A)righteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; as for the wickedness of the wicked, ^(B)he shall not fall because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness; nor shall the righteous be able to live because of his righteousness in the day that he sins.’ ¹³ When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, ^(C)but he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous works shall be remembered; but because of the iniquity that he has committed, he shall die.

Deceptions of False Teachers

¹⁸ For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who ^[a]have actually escaped from those who live in error. ¹⁹ While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of ^[b]corruption; ^(A)for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into ^[c]bondage. ²⁰ For if, after they ^(B)have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are ^(C)again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. ²¹ For ^(D)it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. ²² But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: ^(E)“A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”

⁷ eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; ⁸ but to those who are self-seeking and ^(A)do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath,

^26 (A)When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and dies in it, it is because of the iniquity which he has done that he dies.