Ezekiel 33

¹The word of the Lord came to me:

²Son of man , speak your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land , and the people of the land take a man from among them , and make him their watchman ,

³and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people ,

⁴then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning , and the sword comes and takes him away , his blood shall be upon his own head .

⁵He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning ; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning , he would have saved his life .

⁶But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet , so that the people are not warned , and the sword comes and takes any one of them , that person is taken away in his iniquity , but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand .

⁷So you , son of man , I have made a watchman for the house of Israel . Whenever you hear a word from my mouth , you shall give them warning from me.

⁸If I say to the wicked , O wicked one, you shall surely die , and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way , that wicked person shall die in his iniquity , but his blood I will require at your hand .

⁹But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way , and he does not turn from his way , that person shall die in his iniquity , but you will have delivered your soul .

¹⁰And you , son of man , say to the house of Israel , Thus have you said : Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live ?

¹¹Say to them, As I live , declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked , but that the wicked turn from his way and live ; turn back , turn back from your evil ways , for why will you die , O house of Israel ?

¹²And you , son of man , say your people , The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses , and as for the wickedness of the wicked , he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness , and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins .

¹³Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live , yet if he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice , none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered , but in his injustice that he has done he shall die .

¹⁴Again, though I say to the wicked , You shall surely die , yet if he turns from his sin and does what is just and right ,

¹⁵if the wicked restores the pledge , gives back what he has taken by robbery , and walks in the statutes of life , not doing injustice , he shall surely live ; he shall not die .

¹⁶None of the sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right ; he shall surely live .

¹⁷your people say , The way of the Lord is not just , when it is their own way that is not just .

¹⁸When the righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice , he shall die for it.

¹⁹And when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right , he shall live by this.

²⁰Yet you say , The way of the Lord is not just . O house of Israel , I will judge each of you according to his ways .

²¹In the twelfth year of our exile , in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month , a fugitive from Jerusalem came to me and said , The city has been struck down .

²²Now the hand of the Lord had been upon me the evening before the fugitive came ; and he had opened my mouth by the time the man came to me in the morning , so my mouth was opened , and I was no longer mute .

²³The word of the Lord came to me:

²⁴Son of man , the inhabitants of these waste places in the land of Israel keep saying , Abraham was only one man, yet he got possession of the land ; but we are many ; the land is surely given us to possess .

²⁵Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord God: You eat flesh with the blood and lift up your eyes to your idols and shed blood ; shall you then possess the land ?

²⁶You rely on the sword , you commit abominations , and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife ; shall you then possess the land ?

²⁷Say this to them, Thus says the Lord God: As I live , surely those who are in the waste places shall fall by the sword , and whoever is in the open field I will give to the beasts to be devoured , and those who are in strongholds and in caves shall die by pestilence .

²⁸And I will make the land a desolation and a waste , and her proud might shall come to an end , and the mountains of Israel shall be so desolate that none will pass through .

²⁹Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have made the land a desolation and a waste because of all their abominations that they have committed .

³⁰As for you , son of man , your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses , say to one another , each to his brother , Come , and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.

³¹And they come to you as people come , and they sit before you as my people , and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act ; their heart is set on their gain .

³²And behold , you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and well on an instrument , for they hear what you say , but they will not do it.

³³When this comes —and come it will !— then they will know that a prophet has been among them.