17These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.
18With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error.
19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.
20If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first.
21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them.
22Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”