Wycliffe WYC
New International Version NIV
17 These be wells without water, and mists driven with whirlwinds [and clouds driven with whirling winds], to whom the thick mist of darknesses is reserved.
17
These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.
18 And they speak in pride of vanity, and deceive in desires of flesh of lechery them, that escape a little. Which live in error,
18
For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.
19 and promise freedom to them [promising liberty, or freedom, to them], when they be servants of corruption. For of whom any man is overcome, of him also he is servant.
19
They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”
20 For if men forsake the uncleannesses of the world, by the knowing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and again be wrapped in these [again enwrapped in these], and be overcome, the latter things be made to them worse than the former.
20
If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.
21 For it was better to them to not know the way of rightwiseness, than to turn again after the knowing, from that holy commandment that was betaken to them.
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.
22 For that very proverb befelled to them, The hound turned again to his vomit, or casting, and a sow is washed in wallowing in fen. [Soothly that thing of very proverb befell to them, An hound turned again to his vomit, or casting up, and a sow washed in the wallowing, or slough, of clay, or fen.]
22
Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.