⁵ When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the ^(A)mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?”

Return of an Unclean Spirit

^24 (A)“When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through ^(B)waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ ²⁵ And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. ²⁶ Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And ^(C)the last state of that person is worse than the first.”

¹⁰ And they obeyed, all the officials and all the people who had entered into the covenant that everyone would set free his slave, male or female, so that they would not be enslaved again. They obeyed and set them free. ¹¹ But afterward they turned around and took back the male and female slaves ^(A)they had set free, and brought them into subjection as slaves. ¹² The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ¹³ “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I myself made a covenant with your fathers when ^(B)I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying, ^14 (C)‘At the end of seven years each of you must set free the fellow Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years; ^(D)you must set him free from your service.’ But ^(E)your fathers did not listen to me or incline their ears to me. ¹⁵ You recently repented and did what was right in my eyes ^(F)by proclaiming liberty, each to his neighbor, and ^(G)you made a covenant before me in the ^(H)house that is called by my name, ¹⁶ but then you turned around ^(I)and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves, ^(J)whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them into subjection to be your slaves.

¹⁷ “Therefore, thus says the Lord: You have not obeyed me ^(K)by proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and to his neighbor; ^(L)behold, I proclaim to you liberty ^(M)to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine, declares the Lord. ^(N)I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

The Exodus

^33 (A)The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.”

²⁰ For if, ^(A)after they have escaped the defilements of the world ^(B)through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, ^(C)the last state has become worse for them than the first. ²¹ For ^(D)it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from ^(E)the holy commandment delivered to them. ²² What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The ^(F)dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”