²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.

Doom of False Teachers

⁴ For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to ^[a]hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; ⁵ and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; ⁶ and turning the cities of ^(A)Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; ⁷ and ^(B)delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked ⁸ (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, ^(C)tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— ⁹ then ^(D)the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,

Old and New Apostates

⁵ But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that ^(A)the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

^32 (A)He who did not spare His own Son, but ^(B)delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

Old Testament Examples

10 Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under ^(A)the cloud, all passed through ^(B)the sea, ² all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, ³ all ate the same ^(C)spiritual food, ⁴ and all drank the same ^(D)spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. ⁵ But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies ^(E)were scattered in the wilderness.

⁶ Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as ^(F)they also lusted. ^7 (G)And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, ^(H)“The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” ^8 (I)Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as ^(J)some of them did, and ^(K)in one day twenty-three thousand fell; ⁹ nor let us ^[a]tempt Christ, as ^(L)some of them also tempted, and ^(M)were destroyed by serpents; ¹⁰ nor complain, as ^(N)some of them also complained, and ^(O)were destroyed by ^(P)the destroyer. ¹¹ Now ^[b]all these things happened to them as examples, and ^(Q)they were written for our ^[c]admonition, ^(R)upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

¹² Therefore ^(S)let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

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

¹⁷ And if ^(A)some of the branches were broken off, ^(B)and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and ^[a]fatness of the olive tree,

¹² For thus says the Lord: “Behold, ^(A)those whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunk. And are you the one who will altogether go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink of it.

²⁹ For behold, ^(A)I begin to bring calamity on the city ^(B)which is called by My name, and should you be utterly unpunished? You shall not be unpunished, for ^(C)I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth,” says the Lord of hosts.’