¹⁸ When the upright man, turning away from his righteousness, does evil, death will overtake him in it.

¹² And you, son of man, say to the children of your people, The righteousness of the upright man will not make him safe in the day when he does wrong; and the evil-doing of the evil man will not be the cause of his fall in the day when he is turned from his evil-doing; and the upright man will not have life because of his righteousness in the day when he does evil.

¹³ When I say to the upright that life will certainly be his; if he puts his faith in his righteousness and does evil, not one of his upright acts will be kept in memory; but in the evil he has done, death will overtake him.

²⁶ When the upright man, turning away from his righteousness, does evil, death will overtake him; in the evil which he has done death will overtake him.

²⁷ Again, when the evil-doer, turning away from the evil he has done, does what is ordered and right, he will have life for his soul.

²⁰ For if, after they have got free from the unclean things of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again taken in the net and overcome, their last condition is worse than their first.

²¹ For it would have been better for them to have had no knowledge of the way of righteousness, than to go back again from the holy law which was given to them, after having knowledge of it.

²² They are an example of that true saying, The dog has gone back to the food it had put out, and the pig which had been washed to its rolling in the dirty earth.

²⁰ Again, when an upright man, turning away from his righteousness, does evil, and I put a cause of falling in his way, death will overtake him: because you have given him no word of his danger, death will overtake him in his evil-doing, and there will be no memory of the upright acts which he has done; but I will make you responsible for his blood.

³⁸ But the upright man will be living by his faith; and if he goes back, my soul will have no pleasure in him.