⁴ And they said to one another, ^(A)“Let us choose a leader and ^(B)go back to Egypt.”

³⁹ Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and ^(A)in their hearts they turned to Egypt,

¹⁶ “But they and our fathers ^(A)acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. ¹⁷ They refused to obey ^(B)and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.^[a] But you are a God ready to forgive, ^(C)gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.

^32 (A)Remember Lot's wife.

¹⁶ Only he must not acquire many ^(A)horses for himself or cause the people ^(B)to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ^(C)‘You shall never return that way again.’

¹⁵ If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, ^(A)they would have had opportunity to return.

⁶⁸ And the Lord ^(A)will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that ^(B)you should never make again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”

²¹ For ^(A)it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from ^(B)the holy commandment delivered to them. ²² What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The ^(C)dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

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