1 And the word of the Loʀᴅ came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, speak to the AEzek 3:11; 33:12, 17, 30; 37:18sons 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 make him their watchman, 3 and he sees the sword coming upon the land and ANeh 4:18-20; Is 58:1; Ezek 33:9; Hos 8:1; Joel 2:1blows on the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and A2 Chr 25:16; Jer 6:17; Zech 1:4does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his BEzek 18:13; 33:5, 9; Acts 18:6blood will be on his own head. 5  ‘He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have AEx 9:19-21; Heb 11:7delivered his life. 6  ‘But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is AEzek 18:20, 24; 33:8, 9taken away 1Or for, and so throughout the chin his iniquity; but his BEzek 3:18, 20blood I will require from the watchman’s hand.’

7 “Now as for you, son of man, I have 1Or givenAIs 62:6; Ezek 3:17-21appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a 2Lit wordmessage from My mouth and give them BJer 1:17; 26:2; Ezek 2:7, 8; Acts 5:20warning from Me. 8  “When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will AIs 3:11; Ezek 18:4, 13, 18, 20; 33:14surely die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. 9  “But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he AActs 13:40, 41, 46does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have BEzek 3:19, 21; Acts 20:26delivered your life.

10 “Now as for 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 we are ALev 26:39; Ezek 4:17; 24:23rotting away in them; BIs 49:14; Ezek 37:11how then can we 1Lit livesurvive?” ’ 11  “Say to them, ‘AIs 49:18; Ezek 5:11As I live!’ declares the Lord 1Heb YHWH, usually rendered Loʀᴅ, and so throughout the chGoᴅ, ‘I take BEzek 18:23, 32; Hos 11:8no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked CJer 31:20; 1 Tim 2:4; 2 Pet 3:9turn from his way and live. DIs 55:6, 7; Jer 3:22; Ezek 18:30, 31; Hos 14:1; Acts 3:19Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’ 12  “And you, son of man, say to 1Lit the sons of your peopleyour fellow citizens, ‘The AEzek 3:18; 18:24; 33:20righteousness of a righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he will B2 Chr 7:14; Ezek 18:21; 33:19not stumble because of it in the day when he turns from his wickedness; whereas a righteous man will not be able to live 2Lit by itby his righteousness on the day when he commits sin.’ 13  “When I say to the righteous he will surely live, and he so trusts in his righteousness that he AEzek 18:26; Heb 10:38; 2 Pet 2:20, 21commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; but in that same iniquity of his which he has committed he will die. 14  “But when I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and he AIs 55:7; Jer 18:7, 8; Ezek 18:27; 33:8, 19; Hos 14:1, 4turns from his sin and practices BMic 6:8justice and righteousness, 15 if a wicked man restores a pledge, AEx 22:1-4; Lev 6:4, 5; Luke 19:8pays back what he has taken by robbery, walks by the BPs 119:59; 143:8; Ezek 20:11statutes 1Lit of lifewhich ensure life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 16  “AIs 1:18; 43:25; Ezek 18:22None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has practiced justice and righteousness; he shall surely live.

17 “Yet 1Lit the sons of your peopleyour fellow citizens say, ‘The way of the Lord is not right,’ when it is their own way that is not right. 18  “When the righteous turns from his righteousness and AEzek 3:20; 18:24; 33:12, 13commits iniquity, then he shall die in 1Lit themit. 19  “But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and practices justice and righteousness, he will live by them. 20  “Yet you say, ‘AEzek 18:25The way of the Lord is not right.’ O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways.”

21 Now AEzek 31:1; 32:1, 17in the BJer 39:1, 2; 40:1; 52:4-7; Ezek 24:1, 2twelfth year of our exile, on the fifth of the tenth month, the 1Or refugeerefugees from Jerusalem came to me, saying, “C2 Kin 25:10; Jer 39:8The city has been 2Lit smittentaken.” 22 Now the AEzek 1:3; 8:1; 37:1hand of the Loʀᴅ had been upon me in the evening, before the 1Lit refugeerefugees came. And He BEzek 3:26, 27; 24:27opened my mouth 2Lit until he cameat the time they came to me in the morning; so my mouth was CLuke 1:64opened and I was no longer 3Or mutespeechless.

23 Then the word of the Loʀᴅ came to me saying, 24 “Son of man, they who AJer 39:10; 40:7; Ezek 33:27live in these waste places in the land of Israel are saying, ‘BIs 51:2; Luke 3:8; Acts 7:5; Rom 4:12Abraham was only one, yet he possessed the land; so to CEzek 11:15us who are many the land has been given as a possession.’ 25  “Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Goᴅ, “You eat meat with the ALev 17:10, 12, 14; Deut 12:16, 23; 15:23blood in it, lift up your eyes to your idols as you shed blood. BJer 7:9, 10Should you then possess the land? 26  “You 1Lit standAMic 2:1, 2; Zeph 3:3rely on your sword, you commit abominations and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. Should you then possess the land?” ’ 27  “Thus you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Goᴅ, “As I live, surely those who are in the waste places will AJer 15:2, 3; 42:22; Ezek 5:12fall by the sword, and whoever is in the 1Lit surface of the fieldopen field I will give to the beasts to be devoured, and those who are in the strongholds and in the B1 Sam 13:6; Is 2:19caves will die of pestilence. 28  “I will AEzek 5:14; 6:14; Mic 7:13make the land a desolation and a waste, and the BEzek 7:24; 24:21; 30:6pride of her power will cease; and the mountains of Israel will be desolate so that no one will pass through. 29  “Then they will know that I am the Loʀᴅ, when I make the land a desolation and a waste because of all their abominations which they have committed.” ’

30 “But as for you, son of man, 1Lit the sons of your peopleyour fellow citizens who talk about you by the walls and in the doorways of the houses, speak to one another, each to his brother, saying, ‘AIs 29:13; 58:2; Ezek 14:3; 20:3, 31Come now and hear what the 2Lit wordmessage is which comes forth from the Loʀᴅ.’ 31  “They come to you as people come, and sit before you as My people and hear your words, but they do not do them, for they do the lustful desires expressed by their APs 78:36, 37; Is 29:13; 1 John 3:18mouth, and their heart goes after their BEzek 22:13, 27; Luke 12:15gain. 32  “Behold, you are to them like a sensual song by one who has a AMark 6:20beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument; for they hear your words but they do not practice them. 33  “So when it AJer 28:9; Ezek 33:29comes to pass—1Lit behold, it is comingas surely it will—then they will know that a prophet has been in their midst.”