Ezekiel 33:8–15

⁸When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely 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 at your hand. ⁹Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have ²delivered your soul.

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.