¹⁸ For, ^(A)speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely ^(B)escaping from those who live in error. ¹⁹ They promise them ^(C)freedom, ^(D)but they themselves are slaves^[a] of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. ²⁰ For if, ^(E)after they have escaped the defilements of the world ^(F)through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, ^(G)the last state has become worse for them than the first. ²¹ For ^(H)it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from ^(I)the holy commandment delivered to them. ²² What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The ^(J)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.

¹⁰ Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me ^(A)with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.”