2 Peter 2:18-22

New King James Version

Deceptions of False Teachers

¹⁸ For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who ^[a]have actually escaped from those who live in error. ¹⁹ While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of ^[b]corruption; ^(A)for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into ^[c]bondage. ²⁰ For if, after they ^(B)have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are ^(C)again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. ²¹ For ^(D)it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. ²² But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: ^(E)“A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”