⁴⁵ Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So will it be also with this evil generation.”^(A)

²⁶ Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first.”^(A)

²⁶ For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins^{(A) 27} but a fearful prospect of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.^{(B) 28} Anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy “on the testimony of two or three witnesses.”^{(C) 29} How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace?^{(D) 30} For we know the one who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.”^[a] And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”^{(E) 31} It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

⁴ For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit^{(A) 5} and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come^{(B) 6} and then have fallen away, since they are crucifying again the Son of God to their own harm and are holding him up to contempt.^{(C) 7} Ground that drinks up the rain falling on it repeatedly and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is cultivated receives a blessing from God.^{(D) 8} But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and on the verge of being cursed; its end is to be burned over.^(E)

⁹ Then Jesus^[a] asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”

¹⁰ But these people slander whatever they do not understand, and they are destroyed by those things that, like irrational animals, they know by instinct. ¹¹ Woe to them! For they go the way of Cain and abandon themselves to Balaam’s error for the sake of gain and perish in Korah’s rebellion.^{(A) 12} These are blots^[a] on your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, feeding themselves.^[b] They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted;^{(B) 13} wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever.^(C)

¹⁴ They have eyes full of adultery,^[a] insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! ¹⁵ They have left the straight road and have gone astray, following the road of Balaam son of Bosor,^[b] who loved the wages of doing wrong^{(A) 16} but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

¹⁷ These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest darkness has been reserved.^{(B) 18} For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with debased^[c] desires of the flesh they entice people who have just^[d] escaped from those who live in error. ¹⁹ They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, for people are slaves to whatever masters them.^{(C) 20} For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the^[e] Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first.^{(D) 21} For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was handed on to them.^{(E) 22} It has happened to them according to the true proverb,

and,

The Long Ending of Mark

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

[[⁹ Now after he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.

²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.^{(A) 23} Whoever hates me hates my Father also.^{(B) 24} If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not have sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.^(C)