Ezekiel 33:1-16 ▼

1 And the word of YHWH came to me, saying:

2 “Son of man, speak to the sons of your people, and say to them: ‘A land, when I bring upon it the sword, and the people of the land take a single man from their borders and set him to them as watchman,

3 and he sees the sword coming upon the land, and he blows on the shofar and warns the people,

4 then if anyone at all hears the voice of the shofar and has not heeded the warning, when the sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his head.

5 He heard the voice of the shofar and he did not heed the warning; his blood will be upon himself. And he who has heeded the warning has saved his soul.

6 And the watchman, if he sees the sword coming and does not blow on the shofar, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes from among them a soul, he will be taken away in his iniquity, and I will seek his blood from the hand of the watchman.’

7 And you, O son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel, and you will hear a word from My mouth, and you will give a warning to them from Me.

8 In My saying to the wicked, ‘O wicked one, you will surely die,’ if you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, then that wicked one will die in his iniquity, and I will seek his blood from your hand.

9 And you, if if you warn the wicked from his way, to turn from it, and he does not turn from his way, then he will die in his iniquity, and you will have delivered your soul.

10 Now you, son of man, say to the house of Israel: Thus you⁺ have spoken, saying, ‘Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and in them we rot away! How then can we live?’

11 Say to them: ‘As I live, a declaration of the Lord YHWH, I have no delight in the death of the wicked, but only in turning the wicked from his way that he should live. Turn back, turn back from your⁺ evil ways! For why should you⁺ die, O house of Israel?’

12 And you, son of man, say to the sons of your people: ‘The righteousness of the righteous man will not snatch him up in the day of his transgression, and the wickedness of the wicked will not cause him to stumble because of it in the day of his turning from his wickedness. And the righteous one will not be able to live by it in the day of his sinning.’

13 In My saying to the righteous, ‘He will surely live,’ and he trusts in his righteousness and does iniquity, all his righteousnesses will not be remembered; and because of the iniquity that he did, by it he will die.

14 And in My saying to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and he turns from his sin and does what is just and right,

15 if a wicked one restores a pledge for what he has stolen, makes restitution in the statutes of life, and he walks without doing iniquity, he will surely live; he will not die.

16 All his sins that he had sinned, they will not be remembered for him; what is just and right he has done; he will surely live.