⁵⁵ And if, after the mark has been washed, the priest sees that the colour of it is not changed and it is not increased, it is to be burned in the fire: the disease is working in it, though the damage may be inside or outside.

¹³ As for your unclean purpose: because I have been attempting to make you clean, but you have not been made clean from it, you will not be made clean till I have let loose my passion on you in full measure.

⁴ As for those who at one time saw the light, tasting the good things from heaven, and having their part in the Holy Spirit,

⁵ With knowledge of the good word of God, and of the powers of the coming time,

⁶ And then let themselves be turned away, it is not possible for their hearts to be made new a second time; because they themselves put the Son of God on the cross again, openly shaming him.

⁷ For a land, drinking in the frequent rain and producing good plants for those for whom it is worked, has a blessing from God:

⁸ But if it sends up thorns and evil plants, it is of no use and is ready to be cursed; its only end is to be burned.

⁹ For the man who has not these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having no memory of how he was made clean from his old sins.

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.