יחזקאל לג

The word of GOD came to me:

O mortal, speak to your people and say to them: When I bring the sword against a country, the citizens of that country take one of their number and appoint him their lookout.

Suppose he sees the sword advancing against the country, and he blows the horn and warns the people.

If anybody hears the sound of the horn but ignores the warning, and the sword comes and dispatches them, their blood shall be on their own head.

Since they heard the sound of the horn but ignored the warning, their bloodguilt shall be upon themselves; had they taken the warning, they would have saved their life.

But if the lookout sees the sword advancing and does not blow the horn, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and destroys one of them, that person was destroyed for their own sins; however, I will demand a reckoning for their blood from the lookout.

Now, O mortal, I have appointed you a lookout for the House of Israel; and whenever you hear a message from My mouth, you must transmit My warning to them.

When I say to someone wicked, “Wicked one, you shall die,” but you have not spoken to warn them against their ways, then that wicked one shall die for their own iniquity, while from you I will demand a reckoning for their blood.

But if you have warned someone wicked to turn back from their ways, and they have not turned from their ways, they shall die for their own iniquity, while you will have saved your life.

Now, O mortal, say to the House of Israel: This is what you have been saying: “Our transgressions and our sins weigh heavily upon us; we are sick at heart about them. How can we survive?”

Say to them: As I live—declares the Sovereign GOD—it is not My desire that the wicked shall die, but that the wicked turn from their [evil] ways and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways, that you may not die, O House of Israel!

Now, O mortal, say to your people: The righteousness of the righteous shall not save them when they transgress, nor shall the wickedness of the wicked cause them to stumble when they turn back from their wickedness. The righteous shall not survive through their righteousness when they sin.

When I say of the righteous “They shall surely live,” and, relying on their righteousness, they commit iniquity, none of their righteous deeds shall be remembered; but for the iniquity that they have committed they shall die.

So, too, when I say to the wicked, “You shall die,” and they turn back from their sinfulness and do what is just and right—

if the wicked restore a pledge, make good what they have taken by robbery, follow the laws of life, and do not commit iniquity—they shall live, they shall not die.

None of the sins that they committed shall be remembered against them; since they do what is just and right, they shall live.

Your people say, “The Sovereign’s way is unfair.” But it is their way that is unfair!

When someone righteous turns away from their righteous deeds to commit iniquity, they shall die for it.

And when someone wicked turns back from wickedness and does what is just and right, it is they who shall live by virtue of these things.

And will you say, “The Sovereign’s way is unfair”? I will judge each one of you according to your own ways, O House of Israel!

In the twelfth year of our exile, on the fifth day of the tenth month, a fugitive came to me from Jerusalem and reported, “The city has fallen.”

Now GOD’s hand had come upon me the evening before the fugitive arrived, opening my mouth before he came to me in the morning; thus my mouth was opened and I was no longer speechless.

The word of GOD came to me:

O mortal, those who live in these ruins in the land of Israel argue, “Abraham was but one man, yet he was granted possession of the land. We are many; surely, the land has been given as a possession to us.”

Therefore say to them: Thus said the Sovereign GOD: You eat with the blood, you raise your eyes to your fetishes, and you shed blood—yet you expect to possess the land!

You men have relied on your sword, you have committed abominations, you have defiled one another’s wives—yet you expect to possess the land!

Thus shall you speak to them: Thus said the Sovereign GOD: As I live, those who are in the ruins shall fall by the sword, and those who are in the open I have allotted as food to the beasts, and those who are in the strongholds and caves shall die by pestilence.

I will make the land a desolate waste, and its proud glory shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, with none passing through.

And they shall know that I am GOD, when I make the land a desolate waste on account of all the abominations that they have committed.

Note well, O mortal: your people who converse about you by the walls and in the doorways of their houses and say to each other and propose to one another, “Come and hear what word has issued from GOD.”

They will come to you in crowds and sit before you in throngs and will hear your words, but they will not obey them. For they produce nothing but lust with their mouths; and their hearts pursue nothing but gain.

To them you are just a singer of bawdy songs, who has a sweet voice and plays skillfully; they hear your words, but will not obey them.

But when the predicted punishment comes—and come it will—they shall know that a prophet has been among them.