²⁵ not giving up meeting together,^(A) as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another^(B)—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.^(C)

²⁶ If we deliberately keep on sinning^(D) after we have received the knowledge of the truth,^(E) no sacrifice for sins is left, ²⁷ but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire^(F) that will consume the enemies of God. ²⁸ Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.^{(G) 29} How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God^(H) underfoot,^(I) who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant^(J) that sanctified them,^(K) and who has insulted the Spirit^(L) of grace?^{(M) 30} For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”^[a](N) and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”^{[b](O) 31} It is a dreadful thing^(P) to fall into the hands^(Q) of the living God.^(R)

³⁹ But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

¹⁷ These people are springs without water^(A) and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.^(B)

²⁰ If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing^(A) our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ^(B) and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.^{(C) 21} It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.^{(D) 22} Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,”^[a](E) and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”