^32 (A)Remember Lot's wife.

²⁶ But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became ^(A)a pillar of salt.

³⁹ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

¹⁸ For, ^(A)speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely ^(B)escaping from those who live in error. ¹⁹ They promise them ^(C)freedom, ^(D)but they themselves are slaves^[a] of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. ²⁰ For if, ^(E)after they have escaped the defilements of the world ^(F)through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, ^(G)the last state has become worse for them than the first. ²¹ For ^(H)it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from ^(I)the holy commandment delivered to them. ²² What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The ^(J)dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

⁶ Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as ^(A)they did. ^7 (B)Do not be idolaters ^(C)as some of them were; as it is written, ^(D)“The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” ^8 (E)We must not indulge in sexual immorality ^(F)as some of them did, and ^(G)twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. ⁹ We must not put Christ^[a] to the test, ^(H)as some of them did and ^(I)were destroyed by serpents, ¹⁰ nor grumble, ^(J)as some of them did and ^(K)were destroyed by ^(L)the Destroyer. ¹¹ Now these things happened to them as an example, but ^(M)they were written down for our instruction, ^(N)on whom the end of the ages has come. ¹² Therefore ^(O)let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

¹⁷ And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. ^(A)Do not look back or stop anywhere in the ^(B)valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.”