33And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,^a ²“Son of man,^b speak to your people,^c and you must say to them, ‘A land, if I bring over it a sword and the people of the land take a man, one from their number, and they appoint him for them as a watchman, ³and he sees the sword coming against the land, and he blows on the horn and he warns the people, ⁴and anyone who listens^d hears the sound of the horn and he does not take warning^e and the sword comes and it takes him, his blood will be on his own head. ⁵For he heard the sound of the horn and he did not take warning; his blood will be on him. But if he took warning, he saved his life. ⁶And as for the watchman, if he sees the sword coming and he does not blow^f the horn, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and it takes their lives,^g he will be taken through his guilt, but his blood from the hand of the watchman I will seek.’

⁷“And you, son of man,^h I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; if you hear a word from my mouth, then you must warn them from me. ⁸When I sayⁱ to the wicked, ‘Wicked one, you will certainly die,’ and you did not speak^j to warn the wicked from his way, he, the wicked, will die by his guilt, but his blood I will seek from your hand. ⁹But, you, if you warn the wicked from his way, to turn from it, and he does not turn^k from his way, he will die by his guilt, and you will have saved your life.

¹⁰“And you, son of man,^l say to the house of Israel, saying,^m ‘So you said, saying,ⁿ “Indeed, our transgressions and our sins are on us, and because of them we are rotting, and how can we live?” ’ ¹¹Say to them, ‘As I live,’^o declares^p the Lord Yahweh, ‘Surely I have no delight^q in the death of the wicked, except^r in the wicked returning from his way, and he lives. Turn back! Turn back from your ways, O evil ones, for why should you die, house of Israel?’

¹²“So^s you, son of man,^t say to your people^u that the righteousness of the righteous shall not save him in the day of his transgression, and the wickedness of the wicked will not cause him to stumble^v on the day of his returning from his wickedness; and the righteous will not be able to live by it on the day when he returns to his sin. ¹³When I say to the righteous, ‘Certainly he will live,’ and he trusted in^w his righteousness, and he turns and he does injustice, all of his righteousness^x will not be remembered, and because of his injustice that he did, because of it he will die. ¹⁴And when I say to the wicked, ‘Certainly you will die,’ but^y he returns from his sin and he does justice and righteousness— ¹⁵for example, the wicked returns a pledge for a loan, he restores stolen property,^z he goes in the statutes of life so as not to do injustice—certainly he will live; he will not die. ¹⁶All of his sins that he committed,^a they will not be remembered against^b him, and he did justice and righteousness; certainly he will live.

¹⁷“Yet^c your people^d say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair!’ yet their way is not fair. ¹⁸When the righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice, then he will die because of it.^e ¹⁹And when the wicked turns from his wickedness, and he does justice and righteousness, because of it^f he will certainly live!^g ²⁰Yet you said, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair!’ I will judge you, house of Israel, each person according to his ways.”

²¹And then^h it was in the twelfthⁱ year, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month of our exile, a survivor from Jerusalem came to me, saying,^j “The city was destroyed!” ²²And the hand of Yahweh was on me on the evening before^k the coming of the survivor, and he opened my mouth before the survivor came to me in the morning,^l and my mouth was opened, and I was no longer^m dumb.ⁿ ²³And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,^o ²⁴“Son of man,^p the inhabitants of these ruins on the soil of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was one man, and he took possession of the land, and we are many; the land has been given for^q us as a possession.’ ²⁵Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “You eat blood in your meat, and you raise your eyes to your idols and you pour out blood, and yet you want to take possession of the land?^r ²⁶You rely on your sword, you do a detestable thing, and each man defiles^s the wife of his neighbor, and yet you want to take possession of the land?” ’^t

²⁷“Thus you must say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “As I live,^u surely^v whoever is in the ruins, by the sword they will fall, and whoever is on the surface of the open field, I will give him to the animals^w to eat him, and whoever is in the stronghold and in the cave, they will die by the plague. ²⁸And I will make the land a desolation and a wasteland, and the pride of its strength will come to an end, and the mountains of Israel will be desolate with no one traveling through them.” ’^x ²⁹And they will know that I am Yahweh when I make my land a desolation and a wasteland, because of all of their detestable things that they have done.

³⁰“And you, son of man,^y your people,^z the ones talking together concerning you beside the walls and in the doorways of the houses, each one with his brother saying,^a ‘Please come and hear what is the word that is going out from Yahweh.’^b ³¹And they come to you as people do,^c and they sit before you,^d and my people hear your words, and they do not do them, for they are showing^e passion in their mouth, but their heart is going after ill-gotten gain. ³²Now, look! You are to them like a sensual song,^f beautiful of voice and played well on an instrument,^g and they hear your words, but they are not doing them.^h ³³Soⁱ when it comes,^j look! It is coming! And then they will know that a prophet was in the midst of them.”

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Footnotes

aLiterally “to say”
bOr “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
cLiterally “the children of your people”
dLiterally “the listening”
eLiterally “not he takes warning”
fLiterally “and not he blows on”
gLiterally “it takes from them a life”
hOr “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
iLiterally “At my saying”
jLiterally “and not you spoke”
kLiterally “and not he turns”
lOr “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
mLiterally “to say”
nLiterally “to say”
oLiterally “live I”
pLiterally “declaration of”
qLiterally “if”
rLiterally “for it”
sOr “And”
tOr “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
uLiterally “the children of your people”
vLiterally “not he will stumbled by it”
wOr “on”
xAccording to the reading tradition (Qere)
yOr “and”
zLiterally “robbed/stolen items”
aLiterally “sins that he sinned”
bOr “for”
cOr “And”
dLiterally “the children of your people”
eLiterally “by/in them”
fHebrew “them”
gLiterally “he, he will live”
hLiterally “and it happened”
iLiterally “two of ten”
jLiterally “to say”
kLiterally “to the face of”
lLiterally “until coming to me in the morning”
mLiterally “and not I was dumb still”
nOr “silent” or “speechless”
oLiterally “to say”
pOr “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
qOr “to”
rOr “you would take possession of”
sLiterally “a man the wife of neighbor you defile”
tOr “you would take possession of the land”
uLiterally “I live”
vLiterally “if not”
wHebrew “animal”
xLiterally “from there is not someone going over”
yOr “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
zLiterally “the children of your people”
aLiterally “to say”
bLiterally “the going out from with Yahweh”
cLiterally “like the coming of a people”
dLiterally “to the face of you”
eOr “expressing”
fLiterally “like a song of lust”
gLiterally “doing good to play a music instrument”
hLiterally “and/but doing there is not they them”
iOr “And”
jLiterally “in/at her coming”