For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them.

(for while he lived among them day after day, that righteous man was tormented in his righteous soul ¹  by the lawless deeds he saw and heard ² )

Although these false teachers promise ¹  such people ²  freedom, they themselves are enslaved to ³  immorality. ⁴  For whatever a person succumbs to, to that he is enslaved. ⁵ 

They are illustrations of this true proverb: ¹  “A dog returns to its own vomit,” ²  and “A sow, after washing herself, ³  wallows in the mire.” ⁴ 

For if after they have escaped the filthy things ¹  of the world through the rich knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, ²  they ³  again get entangled in them and succumb to them, ⁴  their last state has become worse for them than their first.