1 So do not be eager to corrupt your deeds through greed or to deceive your souls with empty words; for if you keep silent with a pure heart, you will understand how to hold fast to the will of God⁠a and to cast away the will of Beliar. 2 The sun, the moon, and the stars do not change their order; so you too must not change the law of God by the disorder of your deeds.⁠b 3 The Gentiles went astray and abandoned the Lord; they changed their order and obeyed sticks and stones, the spirits of dishonesty. 4 But you must not be like that, my children. Recognize in the sky, the earth, the sea, and all created things the Lord who made everything, so that you do not become like Sodom, which changed the order of nature. 5 In the same way the Watchers also changed the order of their nature, and the Lord cursed them at the flood; because of them he made the earth uninhabited and barren.