Ezekiel 33–34

Chapter 33

The Watchman’s Duty

¹And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²“Son of man, speak to the ^asons 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,

³and he sees the sword coming upon the land and ^ablows on the trumpet and warns the people,

⁴then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and ^adoes not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his ^bblood 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 ^adelivered 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 ^ataken away ¹in his iniquity; but his ^bblood I will require from the watchman’s hand.’

⁷“Now as for you, son of man, I have ^1aappointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a ²message from My mouth and give them ^bwarning from Me.

⁸“When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will ^asurely 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 ^adoes not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have ^bdelivered 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 ^arotting away in them; ^bhow then can we ¹survive?” ’

¹¹“Say to them, ‘^aAs I live!’ declares the Lord ¹God, ‘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“And you, son of man, say to ¹your fellow citizens, ‘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 ²by 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 ^acommits 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 ^aturns from his sin and practices ^bjustice and righteousness,

¹⁵if a wicked man restores a pledge, ^apays back what he has taken by robbery, walks by the ^bstatutes ¹which ensure life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die.

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

¹⁷“Yet ¹your 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 ^acommits iniquity, then he shall die in ¹it.

¹⁹“But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and practices 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.”

Word of Jerusalem’s Capture

²¹Now ^ain the ^btwelfth year of our exile, on the fifth of the tenth month, the ¹refugees from Jerusalem came to me, saying, “^cThe city has been ²taken.”

²²Now the ^ahand of the Lord had been upon me in the evening, before the ¹refugees came. And He ^bopened my mouth ²at the time they came to me in the morning; so my mouth was ^copened and I was no longer ³speechless.

²³Then the word of the Lord came to me saying,

²⁴“Son of man, they who ^alive in these waste places in the land of Israel are saying, ‘^bAbraham was only one, yet he possessed the land; so to ^cus who are many the land has been given as a possession.’

²⁵“Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “You eat meat with the ^ablood in it, lift up your eyes to your idols as you shed blood. ^bShould you then possess the land?

²⁶“You ^1arely 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 God, “As I live, surely those who are in the waste places will ^afall by the sword, and whoever is in the ¹open field I will give to the beasts to be devoured, and those who are in the strongholds and in the ^bcaves will die of pestilence.

²⁸“I will ^amake the land a desolation and a waste, and the ^bpride 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 Lord, 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, ¹your 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, ‘^aCome now and hear what the ²message is which comes forth from the Lord.’

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 ^amouth, and their heart goes after their ^bgain.

³²“Behold, you are to them like a sensual song by one who has a ^abeautiful voice and plays well on an instrument; for they hear your words but they do not practice them.

³³“So when it ^acomes to pass—¹as surely it will—then they will know that a prophet has been in their midst.”

Chapter 34

Prophecy against the Shepherds of Israel

¹Then the word of the Lord came to me saying,

²“Son of man, prophesy against the ^ashepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to ¹those shepherds, ‘Thus says the Lord ²God, “Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been ^3bfeeding themselves! Should not the shepherds ^cfeed the flock?

³“You ^aeat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you ^bslaughter the fat sheep without ¹feeding the flock.

⁴“Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, the ¹diseased you have not healed, ^athe broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you ^bsought for the lost; but with force and with severity you have dominated them.

⁵“They were ^ascattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became ^bfood for every beast of the field and were scattered.

⁶“My flock ^awandered through all the mountains and on every high hill; ^bMy flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth, and there was ^cno one to search or seek for them.” ’ ”

⁷Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:

⁸“As I live,” declares the Lord God, “surely because My flock has become a ^aprey, My flock has even become food for all the beasts of the field for lack of a shepherd, and My shepherds did not search for My flock, but rather the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock;

⁹therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:

¹⁰‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am ^aagainst the shepherds, and I will demand My ¹sheep ²from them and make them ^bcease from feeding sheep. So the shepherds will not ³feed themselves anymore, but I will ^cdeliver My flock from their mouth, so that they will not be food for them.” ’ ”

The Restoration of Israel

¹¹For thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I Myself will ^asearch for My sheep and seek them out.

¹²“^aAs a shepherd ¹cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered ²sheep, so I will ^bcare for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a ^ccloudy and gloomy day.

¹³“I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will ^afeed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ^bstreams, and in all the inhabited places of the land.

¹⁴“I will feed them in a ^agood pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground and feed in ^1brich pasture on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁵“I will ^afeed My flock and I will ¹lead them to rest,” declares the Lord God.

¹⁶“I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick; but the ^afat and the strong I will destroy. I will ^bfeed them with judgment.

¹⁷“As for you, My flock, thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I will ^ajudge between one ¹sheep and another, between the rams and the male goats.

¹⁸‘Is it too ^aslight a thing for you that you should feed in the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pastures? Or that you should drink of the clear waters, that you must ¹foul the rest with your feet?

¹⁹‘As for My flock, they must eat what you tread down with your feet and drink what you ¹foul with your feet!’ ”

²⁰Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them, “Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.

²¹“Because you push with side and with shoulder, and ^athrust at all the ¹weak with your horns until you have scattered them ²abroad,

²²therefore, I will ^adeliver My flock, and they will no longer be a prey; and I will judge between one sheep and another.

²³“Then I will ^aset over them one ^bshepherd, My servant ^cDavid, and he will feed them; he will feed them himself and be their shepherd.

²⁴“And I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant ^aDavid will be prince among them; I the Lord have spoken.

²⁵“I will make a ^acovenant of peace with them and ^beliminate harmful beasts from the land so that they may ^clive securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.

²⁶“I will make them and the places around My hill a ^ablessing. And I will cause ^bshowers to come down in their season; they will be showers of ^cblessing.

²⁷“Also the tree of the field will yield its fruit and the earth will yield its increase, and they will be ^asecure on their land. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have ^b…