Ezekiel 33:1–20

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.”