Ezekiel 33

1And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

2Son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them, ‘If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and appoint him as their watchman,’

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

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

5He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood will be upon himself. But if he takes warning, he will save his life.

6But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes a life from among them, that one is taken away in his iniquity, but I will require his blood from the watchman's hand.

7And you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; when you hear a word from my mouth, you shall warn them from me.

8When I say to the wicked, ‘Wicked one, you shall surely die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood from your hand.

9But if you warn a wicked man to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity; but you will have delivered your soul.

10And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus you have said: “Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and in them we are wasting away; so how can we live?”’

11Say to them, ‘As I live,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘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 will you die, O house of Israel?’

12And you, son of man, say to the sons of your people: The righteousness of the righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression, and the wickedness of the wicked man—he will not stumble by it in the day he turns from his wickedness; and the righteous man will not be able to live by it in the day of his sin.

13When I say to the righteous man, ‘He shall surely live,’ and he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered, but by the injustice that he has done he shall die.

14And when I say to the wicked man, ‘You shall surely die,’ and he turns from his sin and does justice and righteousness,

15if the wicked man restores the pledge, repays what he has stolen, walks in the statutes of life without doing injustice, he shall surely live; he shall not die.

16None of the sins that he committed will be remembered against him; he has done justice and righteousness; he shall surely live.

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

18When a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die because of them.

19And when a wicked man turns from his wickedness and does justice and righteousness, by them he shall live.

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

21And it happened in the twelfth year, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month of our exile, that the fugitive from Jerusalem came to me, saying, “The city has been struck down.”

22The hand of Yahweh had been upon me in the evening, before the fugitive came, and he opened my mouth until he came to me in the morning. So my mouth was opened, and I was no longer mute.

23And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

24Son of man, the inhabitants of these ruins on the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land; but we are many—the land has been given to us as a possession.’

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

26You stand on your sword, you commit abominations, and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. Shall you then possess the land?

27Thus you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: As I live, surely those who are in the ruins will fall by the sword, and whoever is on the face of the field I have given to the wild animals to be devoured, and those who are in the strongholds and in the caves will die by pestilence.’

28And I will make the land a desolation and a waste, and the pride of its strength will cease, and the mountains of Israel will be desolate, with no one passing through.

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

30And you, son of man, the sons of your people who talk about you beside the walls and in the doorways of the houses, each one speaking with another, each man with his brother, saying, ‘Come now and hear what the word is that comes from Yahweh.’

31And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they speak lustful things, while their heart goes after their unjust gain.

32Look, you are to them like a sensual song, with a beautiful voice and skillful playing; they hear your words, but they do not do them.

33When it comes—and look, it is coming—then they will know that a prophet has been among them.