⁴ Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!”

³⁹ “But our ancestors refused to listen to Moses. They rejected him and wanted to return to Egypt.

³² Remember what happened to Lot’s wife!

¹⁶ “The king must not build up a large stable of horses for himself or send his people to Egypt to buy horses, for the Lord has told you, ‘You must never return to Egypt.’

¹⁵ If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back.

⁶⁸ Then the Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships, to a destination I promised you would never see again. There you will offer to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves, but no one will buy you.”

²¹ It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. ²² They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.”^[a] And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.”

³⁹ But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved.