Ezekiel 32:17-33:20

New King James Version

Egypt and Others Consigned to the Pit

¹⁷It came to pass also in the twelfth year, on the fifteenth day of the month, ^(A)that the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

¹⁸“Son of man, wail over the multitude of Egypt,
And ^(B)cast them down to the depths of the earth,
Her and the daughters of the famous nations,
With those who go down to the Pit:
¹⁹‘Whom ^(C)do you surpass in beauty?
^(D)Go down, be placed with the uncircumcised.’

²⁰“They shall fall in the midst of those slain by the sword;
She is delivered to the sword,
^(E)Drawing her and all her multitudes.
²¹^(F)The strong among the mighty
Shall speak to him out of the midst of hell
With those who help him:
‘They have ^(G)gone down,
They lie with the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.’

²²“Assyria^(H) is there, and all her company,
With their graves all around her,
All of them slain, fallen by the sword.
²³^(I)Her graves are set in the recesses of the Pit,
And her company is all around her grave,
All of them slain, fallen by the sword,
Who ^(J)caused terror in the land of the living.

²⁴“There is ^(K)Elam and all her multitude,
All around her grave,
All of them slain, fallen by the sword,
Who have ^(L)gone down uncircumcised to the lower parts of the earth,
^(M)Who caused their terror in the land of the living;
Now they bear their shame with those who go down to the Pit.
²⁵They have set her ^(N)bed in the midst of the slain,
With all her multitude,
With her graves all around it,
All of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword;
Though their terror was caused
In the land of the living,
Yet they bear their shame
With those who go down to the Pit;
It was put in the midst of the slain.

²⁶“There are ^(O)Meshech and Tubal and all their multitudes,
With all their graves around it,
All of them ^(P)uncircumcised, slain by the sword,
Though they caused their terror in the land of the living.
²⁷^(Q)They do not lie with the mighty
Who are fallen of the uncircumcised,
Who have gone down to hell with their weapons of war;
They have laid their swords under their heads,
But their iniquities will be on their bones,
Because of the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.
²⁸Yes, you shall be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised,
And lie with those slain by the sword.

²⁹“There is ^(R)Edom,
Her kings and all her princes,
Who despite their might
Are laid beside those slain by the sword;
They shall lie with the uncircumcised,
And with those who go down to the Pit.
³⁰^(S)There are the princes of the north,
All of them, and all the ^(T)Sidonians,
Who have gone down with the slain
In shame at the terror which they caused by their might;
They lie uncircumcised with those slain by the sword,
And bear their shame with those who go down to the Pit.

³¹“Pharaoh will see them
And be ^(U)comforted over all his multitude,
Pharaoh and all his army,
Slain by the sword,”
Says the Lord God.

³²“For I have caused My terror in the land of the living;
And he shall be placed in the midst of the uncircumcised
With those slain by the sword,
Pharaoh and all his multitude,”
Says the Lord God.

The Watchman and His Message

33 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ²“Son of man, speak to ^(V)the children of your people, and say to them: ^(W)‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their ^(X)watchman, ³when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, ⁴then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does ^(Y)not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, ^(Z)his blood shall be on his own head. ⁵He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will ^[a]save his life. ⁶But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, ^(AA)he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.’

⁷^(AB)“So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. 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 ^[b]delivered 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 ^(AC)pine^[c] away in them, ^(AD)how can we then live?” ’ ¹¹Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ^(AE)‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked ^(AF)turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For ^(AG)why 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 ^(AH)righteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; as for the wickedness of the wicked, ^(AI)he 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, ^(AJ)but 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, ^(AK)when I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ if he turns from his sin and does ^[d]what is lawful and ^[e]right, ¹⁵if the wicked ^(AL)restores the pledge, ^(AM)gives back what he has stolen, and walks in ^(AN)the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. ¹⁶^(AO)None of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right; he shall surely live.

¹⁷^(AP)“Yet the children of your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not ^[f]fair.’ But it is their way which is not fair! ¹⁸^(AQ)When 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, ^(AR)‘The way of the Lord is not ^[g]fair.’ O house of Israel, I will judge every one of you according to his own ways.”