Ezekiel 33:10–20

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 ^arotting away in them; ^bhow then can we live?” ’

¹¹“Say to them, ‘^aAs I live!’ declares Lord Yahweh, ‘I take ^bno pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked ^cturn from his way and live. ^dTurn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’

¹²“Now as for you, son of man, say to the sons of your people, ‘The ^arighteousness of a righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he will ^bnot stumble because of it in the day when he turns from his wickedness; whereas a righteous man will not be able to live ¹by 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 ^adoes iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; but in that same iniquity of his which he has done he will die.

¹⁴“But when I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and he ^aturns from his sin and does ^bjustice and righteousness,

¹⁵if a wicked man restores a pledge, ^apays back what he has taken by robbery, walks by the ^bstatutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die.

¹⁶“^aNone of his sins that he has done will be remembered against him. He has done justice and righteousness; he shall surely live.

¹⁷“Yet the sons of your people 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 ^adoes iniquity, then he shall die in ¹it.

¹⁹“But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does justice and righteousness, he will live by them.

²⁰“Yet you say, ‘^aThe way of the Lord is not right.’ O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways.”