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word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, speak to your your fellow countrymen and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land take one of their number and appoint him as their watchman, 3 and he sees the sword coming against the land, and he blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then whoever hears the trumpet but ignores the warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. 5 Since he heard the sound of the trumpet but ignored the warning, his blood will be on his own head. If he had heeded the warning, he would have saved his own life. 6 But 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 the life of one of them, then he has been taken away because of his own iniquity, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood’.
7 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. So when you hear a word from My mouth, you must give them a warning from Me. 8 When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die’, and you do not speak out to warn the wicked man from his ways, that wicked man will die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 9 But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he will die for his own iniquity, but you will have saved your own life.
10 “Now you, son of man, say to the house of Israel: ‘This is what you are saying: Our transgressions and our sins weigh heavily upon us, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we survive?” ’ 11 Say to them, ‘As I live, says the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked person should turn from his ways and live. Turn back! Turn back from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’
12 “Therefore you, O son of man, say to your fellow countrymen: ‘The righteousness of the righteous man will not save him when he transgresses; neither will the wickedness of the wicked man cause him to stumble when he turns back from his wickedness. The righteous man will not survive because of his former righteousness when he sins. 13 When I say to the righteous man that he will surely live, but he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, then none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; but because of the iniquity that he has committed, he will die.
14 “Again, when I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die’, and he turns back from his sin and does what is just and right— 15 If the wicked man restores what he took in pledge, gives back what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he will surely live; he will not die. 16 None of the sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he will surely live.
17 “Yet your fellow countrymen say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just’. But it is their own way that is not just. 18 When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he will die for it. 19 But when a wicked man turns back from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live because of this. 20 Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just’. O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his own ways.”
21 In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth day, a man who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city has been captured!” 22 Now the hand of the Lord had been on me the evening before the fugitive arrived, and He opened my mouth before the man came to me in the morning. So my mouth was opened and I was no longer unable to speak.
23 Then the word of the Lord 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 was granted possession of the land. But we are many; surely the land has been given to us as a possession’. 25 Therefore say to them: ‘This is what the Lord God says: “You eat meat with the blood still in it, you lift your eyes to your idols, and shed blood. Should you then possess the land? 26 You rely on your swords, you do detestable things, and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. Should you then possess the land?” ’
27 “Say this to them: ‘This is what the Lord God says: “As surely as I live, those who are left in the ruins will fall by the sword, those out in the open country I will give to the wild animals to be devoured, and those in strongholds and caves will die by pestilence. 28 I will make the land a desolate waste, and her proud strength will come to an end; and the mountains of Israel will become desolate, with no one passing through. 29 Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have made the land a desolate waste because of all the abominations they have committed” ’.
30 “As for you, son of man, your fellow countrymen are talking together about you by the walls and in the doorways of their houses. They speak with one another, each saying to his brother, ‘Come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord’. 31 So they come to you as people do, and they sit before you as My people. Then they listen to your words, but they do not obey them. Their mouths speak of love, but their hearts pursue their own unjust gain. 32 Indeed, you are to them like a singer of love songs, who has a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words, but they do not obey them.
33 “But when it comes—and come it certainly will—then they will know that a prophet has been among them.”