Therefore you, O son of man, say to the children of your people: The righteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression. As for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness; nor shall the righteous be able to live because of his righteousness in the day that he sins.

When I say to the righteous that he shall live life, but he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, none of all his righteousness shall be remembered; but because of the iniquity that he has done, he shall die.

When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and dies in it, it is for the iniquity which he has done that he dies.

Again, when a wicked man turns away from the wickedness which he has done, and does what is lawful and right, he preserves himself alive.

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the full true knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the end is worse for them than the beginning.

But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to his own vomit, and, a sow, having been washed, to her wallowing in the mire.

Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul is not pleased with him.