²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.^[a]

⁴ For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and committed them to chains^[a] of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment;^{(A) 5} and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;^{(B) 6} and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to destruction^[b] and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;^{[c] 7} and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the debauchery of the lawless^{(C) 8} (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard), ⁹ then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial and to keep the unrighteous until the day of judgment, when they will be punished^(D)

Judgment on False Teachers

⁵ Now I desire to remind you, though you are fully informed, once and for all, that Jesus, who saved^[a] a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.^(A)

¹⁹ You will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”

³² He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else?

Warnings from Israel’s History

10 I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,^{(A) 2} and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, ³ and all ate the same spiritual food,^{(B) 4} and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.^{(C) 5} Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.^(D)

⁶ Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did.^{(E) 7} Do not become idolaters as some of them did, as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.”^{(F) 8} We must not engage in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.^{(G) 9} We must not put Christ^[a] to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents.^{(H) 10} And do not complain, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.^{(I) 11} These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come.^{(J) 12} So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.

¹⁷ But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted among the others to share the rich root^[a] of the olive tree,

¹² For thus says the Lord: If those who do not deserve to drink the cup still have to drink it, shall you be the one to go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished; you must drink it.^(A)

²⁹ See, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that is called by my name, and how can you possibly avoid punishment? You shall not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord of hosts.^(A)