⁷ And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. ^(A)Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ ⁸ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. ⁹ Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

²¹ yet he has no root in himself, but ^(A)endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately ^(B)he falls away.^[a]

²⁰ For if, ^(A)after they have escaped the defilements of the world ^(B)through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, ^(C)the last state has become worse for them than the first. ²¹ For ^(D)it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from ^(E)the holy commandment delivered to them. ²² What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The ^(F)dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem

^41 (A)And when he drew near and saw the city, ^(B)he wept over it, ⁴² saying, ^(C)“Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now ^(D)they are hidden from your eyes.