Ezekiel 33

1 The Lord’s word came to me. 2 “Son of man, speak to your people and tell them: Suppose I bring a sword against a land, and the people of that land choose one of their own and appoint him as their watchman.” 3 “When he sees the sword coming against the land, he blows the trumpet and warns the people.” 4 “If someone hears the trumpet but does not pay attention, and the sword overtakes him, his blood will be on his own head.” 5 “Because he heard the trumpet but did not pay attention, his blood will be on him. The person who pays attention rescues his own life.” 6 “But suppose the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so the people receive no warning. If the sword comes and takes someone from among them, that person is taken because of his own lawlessness, but I will require that person’s blood from the watchman.” 7 “Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for the house of Israel. Listen to the word from my mouth.” 8 “When I tell a sinner, ‘You will certainly die,’ if you do not speak to warn the ungodly man from his way, that lawless man will die in his lawlessness, and I will require his blood from you.” 9 “But if you warn the ungodly man to turn from his way and he does not turn, he will die for his ungodliness, but you will have rescued your own life.” 10 “Son of man, tell the house of Israel: You have said, ‘Our errors and lawless deeds weigh on us, and we waste away in them. How then can we live?’” 11 “Tell them, ‘As I live, says the Lord, I do not desire the ungodly person’s death. I desire that the ungodly turn from his way and live. Turn wholeheartedly from your way. Why should you die, house of Israel?’” 12 “Tell your people: A righteous person’s righteousness will not rescue him on the day he goes astray, and an ungodly person’s lawlessness will not harm him on the day he turns from it. And the righteous person will not be able to be saved.” † 13 “When I say to a righteous person, ‘This one trusts in his righteousness,’ and he commits lawlessness, none of his righteous acts will be remembered. He will die for the wrong he did.” 14 “When I tell an ungodly person, ‘You will certainly die,’ if he turns from his sin and does what is just and righteous,” 15 “returns a pledge, repays what he robbed, and walks in the decrees of life so as to do no wrong, he will certainly live and will not die.” 16 “None of the sins he committed will be remembered against him. Because he has done what is just and righteous, he will live.” 17 “Yet your people say, ‘The Lord’s way is not straight,’ when it is their own way that is not straight.” 18 “When a righteous person turns from righteousness and commits lawless deeds, he will die in them.” 19 “When a sinner turns from his lawlessness and does what is just and righteous, he will live by doing so.” 20 “You say, ‘The Lord’s way is not straight.’ House of Israel, I will judge each of you according to your own ways.” 21 In the twelfth year of our exile, on the fifth day of the twelfth month, a survivor from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city has been taken.” 22 The Lord’s hand had come on me in the evening before the survivor arrived. When the man came to me in the morning, the Lord opened my mouth, and I was no longer silent. 23 The Lord’s word came to me. 24 “Son of man, those living among the ruins in the land of Israel say, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land. We are many; surely the land has been given to us as our possession.’” 25 “Therefore tell them, ‘This is what the Lord God says.’” [a] 27 “As I live, those in the ruined places will fall by the sword. Those in the open country will become food for wild animals. I will kill by plague those in fortified places and caves.” 28 “I will make the land a wasteland, and its proud strength will perish. Israel’s mountains will become desolate, with no one passing through.” 29 “They will know that I am the Lord when I make their land a desolate wasteland because of all the detestable things they have done.” 30 “Son of man, your people talk about you beside the walls and in the entrances of their houses. They tell one another, ‘Come together and hear the words that come from the Lord.’” 31 “They approach you as a people gathering and sit before you. They hear your words but will not follow them, because falsehood is in their mouths and their hearts pursue their defilements.” 32 “To them you are like the sound of a sweet, well-tuned harp. They hear your words but will not follow them.” 33 “And when it comes, they will say, ‘Look, it has come.’ Then they will know that a prophet was among them.”