Ezekiel 33

1The word of Yahweh came to me:

2“Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, ‘Suppose I bring a sword against a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman.

3He sees the sword coming against the land, and he blows the trumpet and warns the people.

4Then if anyone hears the sound of the trumpet but does not take the warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head.

5He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take the warning; his blood will be on himself. If he had taken the 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 away a life from among them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but I will hold the watchman responsible for his blood.’

7As for you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you are to warn them for me.

8When I say to the wicked, ‘Wicked one, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person will die in his iniquity, but I will hold you responsible for his blood.

9But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your life.

10As for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what you have been saying: “Our transgressions and our sins are on us, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?”’

11Say to them, ‘As I live, declares Lord Yahweh, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why should you die, house of Israel?’

12As for you, son of man, say to your people, ‘The righteousness of the righteous will not save him on the day he transgresses, and the wickedness of the wicked will not make him fall on the day he turns from his wickedness. The righteous will not be able to live by his righteousness on the day he sins.

13If I say to the righteous, “You will surely live,” but he trusts in his righteousness and does wrong, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; he will die for the wrong he has done.

14And if I say to the wicked, “You will surely die,” but he turns from his sin and does what is just and right,

15if the wicked person returns a pledge, pays back what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes that give life, without doing wrong, he will surely live; he will not die.

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

17Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair,’ when it is their own way that is not fair.

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

19And when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live because of it.

20Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ 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 survivor from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city has been struck down!”

22Now the hand of Yahweh had been on me in the evening before the survivor 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 silent.

23The word of Yahweh came to me:

24“Son of man, those who live in these ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land. But we are many; surely the land has been given to us as a possession.’

25Therefore say to them, ‘This is what Lord Yahweh says: You eat meat with the blood in it, you look to your idols, and you shed blood. Should you then possess the land?

26You rely on your swords, you do abominable things, and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. Should you then possess the land?’

27This is what you are to say to them: ‘This is what Lord Yahweh says: As I live, those who are in the ruins will fall by the sword, those who are in the open field I will give to the wild animals to be devoured, and those who are in the strongholds and caves will die of plague.

28I will make the land a desolate waste, and her proud strength will come to an end. The mountains of Israel will be so desolate that no one will pass through them.

29Then they will know that I am Yahweh, when I make the land a desolate waste because of all the abominations they have done.’

30As for you, son of man, your people are talking about you by the walls and in the doorways of the houses. They say to one another, each to his brother, ‘Come and hear what the word is that comes from Yahweh.’

31They come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people. They hear your words, but they do not do them. For with their mouths they speak of love, but their hearts go after their own gain.

32To them you are like someone who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays skillfully on an instrument. They hear your words, but they do not do them.

33When it comes, and it is certainly coming, they will know that a prophet has been among them.”