Ezekiel 33:10–20

¹⁰“Therefore you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: ‘Thus you say, “If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we ^hpine ³away in them, ⁱhow can we then live?” ’ ¹¹Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ^j‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked ^kturn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For ^lwhy should you die, O house of Israel?’

The Fairness of God’s Judgment

¹²“Therefore you, O son of man, say to the children of your people: ‘The ^mrighteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; as for the wickedness of the wicked, ⁿhe shall not fall because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness; nor shall the righteous be able to live because of his righteousness in the day that he sins.’ ¹³When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, ^obut he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous works shall be remembered; but because of the iniquity that he has committed, he shall die. ¹⁴Again, ^pwhen I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ if he turns from his sin and does ⁴what is lawful and ⁵right, ¹⁵if the wicked ^qrestores the pledge, ^rgives back what he has stolen, and walks in ^sthe statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. ^16tNone of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right; he shall surely live.

^17u“Yet the children of your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not ⁶fair.’ But it is their way which is not fair! ^18vWhen the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he shall die because of it. ¹⁹But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is lawful and right, he shall live because of it. ²⁰Yet you say, ^w‘The way of the Lord is not ⁷fair.’ O house of Israel, I will judge every one of you according to his own ways.”