That is why we must hold on all the more firmly to the truths we have heard, so that we will not be carried away.

How, then, shall we escape if we pay no attention to such a great salvation? The Lord himself first announced this salvation, and those who heard him proved to us that it is true.

Guard against turning back from the grace of God. Let no one become like a bitter plant that grows up and causes many troubles with its poison.

Jesus answered, "Watch out, and do not let anyone fool you.

"You yourselves must watch out. You will be arrested and taken to court. You will be beaten in the synagogues; you will stand before rulers and kings for my sake to tell them the Good News.

Be on your guard! I have told you everything ahead of time.

Be on watch, be alert, for you do not know when the time will come.

Jesus said, "Watch out; don't be fooled. Many men, claiming to speak for me, will come and say, 'I am he!' and, 'The time has come!' But don't follow them.

God did not spare the Jews, who are like natural branches; do you think he will spare you?

If you think you are standing firm you had better be careful that you do not fall.

And so I was angry with those people and said, 'They are always disloyal and refuse to obey my commands.'

The odor of the sacrifice pleased the LORD, and he said to himself, "Never again will I put the earth under a curse because of what people do; I know that from the time they are young their thoughts are evil. Never again will I destroy all living beings, as I have done this time.

for my people have committed two sins: they have turned away from me, the spring of fresh water, and they have dug cisterns, cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all.

When that time comes, Jerusalem will be called 'The Throne of the LORD,' and all nations will gather there to worship me. They will no longer do what their stubborn and evil hearts tell them.

But they did not obey or pay any attention. Instead, they did whatever their stubborn and evil hearts told them to do, and they became worse instead of better.

But they did not listen or obey. Instead, everyone continued to be as stubborn and evil as ever. I had commanded them to keep the covenant, but they refused. So I brought on them all the punishments described in it."

But you have done even worse than your ancestors. All of you are stubborn and evil, and you do not obey me.

"Who can understand the human heart? There is nothing else so deceitful; it is too sick to be healed.

They will answer, 'No, why should we? We will all be just as stubborn and evil as we want to be.' "

For from the inside, from your heart, come the evil ideas which lead you to do immoral things, to rob, kill,

all these evil things come from inside you and make you unclean."

My righteous people, however, will believe and live; but if any of them turns back, I will not be pleased with them."

Be careful, then, and do not refuse to hear him who speaks. Those who refused to hear the one who gave the divine message on earth did not escape. How much less shall we escape, then, if we turn away from the one who speaks from heaven!

The wicked tell God to leave them alone; they don't want to know his will for their lives.

These are the ones who rejected God and believed that he could do nothing to them.

I have obeyed the law of the LORD; I have not turned away from my God.

Inexperienced people die because they reject wisdom. Stupid people are destroyed by their own lack of concern.

We have rebelled against you, rejected you, and refused to follow you. We have oppressed others and turned away from you. Our thoughts are false; our words are lies.

The LORD says, "I will condemn those who turn away from me and put their trust in human beings, in the strength of mortals.

When the LORD first spoke to Israel through Hosea, he said to Hosea, "Go and get married; your wife will be unfaithful, and your children will be just like her. In the same way my people have left me and become unfaithful."

All those people speak about how you received us when we visited you, and how you turned away from idols to God, to serve the true and living God