4 So, since Christ suffered in the flesh ^[a]for us, for you, arm yourselves with the same thought and ^[b]purpose [patiently to suffer rather than fail to please God]. For whoever has suffered in the flesh [having ^[c]the mind of Christ] is done with [intentional] sin [has stopped pleasing himself and the world, and pleases God],

² So that he can no longer spend the rest of his natural life living by [his] human appetites and desires, but [he lives] for what God wills.

³ For the time that is past already suffices for doing what the Gentiles like to do—living [as you have done] in shameless, insolent wantonness, in lustful desires, drunkenness, reveling, drinking bouts and abominable, lawless idolatries.

⁴ They are astonished and think it very queer that you do not now run hand in hand with them in the same excesses of dissipation, and they abuse [you].

⁵ But they will have to give an account to Him Who is ready to judge and pass sentence on the living and the dead.

⁶ For this is why the good news (the Gospel) was preached [^[d]in their lifetime] even to the dead, that though judged in fleshly bodies as men are, they might live in the spirit as God does.

⁷ But the end and culmination of all things has now come near; keep sound minded and self-restrained and alert therefore for [the practice of] prayer.

⁸ Above all things have intense and unfailing love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins [forgives and ^[e]disregards the offenses of others].^(A)

⁹ Practice hospitality to one another (those of the household of faith). [Be hospitable, be a lover of strangers, with brotherly affection for the unknown guests, the foreigners, the poor, and all others who come your way who are of Christ’s body.] And [in each instance] do it ungrudgingly (cordially and graciously, without complaining but as representing Him).

¹⁰ As each of you has received a gift (a particular spiritual talent, a gracious divine endowment), employ it for one another as [befits] good trustees of God’s many-sided grace [faithful stewards of the ^[f]extremely diverse powers and gifts granted to Christians by unmerited favor].

¹¹ Whoever speaks, [let him do it as one who utters] oracles of God; whoever renders service, [let him do it] as with the strength which God furnishes ^[g]abundantly, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ (the Messiah). To Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever (through endless ages). Amen (so be it).

¹² Beloved, do not be amazed and bewildered at the fiery ordeal which is taking place to test your quality, as though something strange (unusual and alien to you and your position) were befalling you.

¹³ But insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, rejoice, so that when His glory [full of radiance and splendor] is revealed, you may also rejoice with triumph [exultantly].

¹⁴ If you are censured and suffer abuse [because you bear] the name of Christ, blessed [are you—happy, fortunate, ^[h]to be envied, ^[i]with life-joy, and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of your outward condition], because the Spirit of glory, the Spirit of God, is resting upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.^(B)

¹⁵ But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or any sort of criminal, or as a mischief-maker (a meddler) in the affairs of others [infringing on their rights].

¹⁶ But if [one is ill-treated and suffers] as a Christian [which he is contemptuously called], let him not be ashamed, but give glory to God that he is [deemed worthy to suffer] in this name.

¹⁷ For the time [has arrived] for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will [be] the end of those who do not respect or believe or obey the good news (the Gospel) of God?

¹⁸ And if the righteous are barely saved, what will become of the godless and wicked?^(C)

¹⁹ Therefore, those who are ill-treated and suffer in accordance with God’s will must do right and commit their souls [in charge as a deposit] to the One Who created [them] and will never fail [them].

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

² Son of man, speak to your people [the Israelite captives in Babylon] and say to them, When I bring the sword upon a land and the people of the land take a man from among them and make him their watchman,

³ If when he sees the sword coming upon the land, he blows the trumpet and warns the people,

⁴ Then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.

⁵ He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning shall save his life.

⁶ But 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 one of them, he is taken away in and for his perversity and iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.

⁷ So you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear the word at My mouth and give them warning from Me.

⁸ When 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 perversity and iniquity, but his blood will I require at your hand.

⁹ But if you warn the wicked to turn from his evil way and he does not turn from his evil way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your life.

¹⁰ And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus you have said: Truly our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we waste away because of them; how then can we live?

¹¹ Say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

¹² And you, son of man, say to your people, The uprightness and justice of the [uncompromisingly] righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; and as for the wicked lawlessness of the wicked lawless, he shall not fall because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness, neither shall the rigidly upright and just be able to live because of his past righteousness in the day that he sins and misses the mark [in keeping in harmony and right standing with God].

¹³ When I shall say to the [uncompromisingly] righteous that he shall surely live, and he trusts to his own righteousness [to save him] and commits iniquity (heinous sin), all his righteous deeds shall not be [seriously] remembered; but for his perversity and iniquity that he has committed he shall die.

¹⁴ Again, when I have said to the wicked, You shall surely die, if he turns from his sin and does that which is lawful and right—

¹⁵ If the wicked restores [what he took in] pledge, gives back what he had taken in robbery, walks in the statutes of life [right relationship with God], without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die.

¹⁶ None of his sins that he has committed shall be [seriously] remembered against him; he has done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.

¹⁷ Yet your people say, The way of the Lord is not perfect or even just; but as for them, it is their own way that is not perfect or even just.

¹⁸ When the righteous turns back from his [uncompromising] righteousness and commits perverseness and iniquity, he shall even die in and because of it.

¹⁹ But if the wicked turns back from his wickedness and does what is lawful and right, he shall live because of it.

²⁰ Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not perfect or [even] just. O you house of Israel, I will judge you, every one according to his own ways!

²¹ In the twelfth year of our captivity [in Babylon], in the tenth [month], on the fifth [day] of the month, a man who had escaped out of Jerusalem came to me [Ezekiel], saying, The city [Jerusalem] is taken.

²² Now the hand of the Lord had been upon me in the evening before this one who had escaped came, and He had opened my mouth [in readiness for the fugitives] coming to me in the morning, and my mouth was opened and I was no longer dumb.

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

²⁴ Son of man, those [back in Palestine] who inhabit those wastes of the ground of Israel are saying, Abraham was only one man and he inherited the land, but we are many; the land is surely given to us to possess as our inheritance.

²⁵ Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord God: You eat meat with the blood [as an idolatrous rite] and lift up your eyes to your [filthy] idols and shed blood; shall you then possess the land?^(A)

²⁶ You stand upon your sword [as your dependence]; you commit abominations and each of you defiles your neighbor’s wife; shall you then possess the land?

²⁷ Say this to them, Thus says the Lord God: As I live, surely those who are in the waste places shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and those who are in strongholds and in caves shall die by pestilence.

²⁸ And I will make the land [of Israel] a desolation and a waste, and her proud might shall cease, and the mountains of Israel shall be so desolate that no one will pass through them.

²⁹ Then shall they know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord, when I have made the land a desolation and a waste because of all their abominations which they have committed.

³⁰ As for you, son of man, your people who talk of you by the walls and in the doors of the houses say one to another, every one to his brother, Come and hear what the word is that comes forth from the Lord.

³¹ And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as My people, and they hear the words you say, but they will not do them; for with their mouths they show much love, but their hearts go after and are set on their [idolatrous greed for] gain.

³² Behold, you are to them as a very lovely [love] song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument, for they hear your words but do not do them.

³³ When this comes to pass—for behold, it will come!—then shall they know, understand, and realize that a prophet has been among them.

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

² Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them, even to the [spiritual] shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Woe to the [spiritual] shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the sheep?

³ You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you kill the fatlings, but you do not feed the sheep.

⁴ The diseased and weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the hurt and crippled you have not bandaged, those gone astray you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought to find, but with force and hardhearted harshness you have ruled them.

⁵ And they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild beasts of the field.

⁶ My sheep wandered through all the mountains and upon every high hill; yes, My sheep were scattered upon all the face of the earth and no one searched or sought for them.^(B)

⁷ Therefore, you [spiritual] shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:

⁸ As I live, says the Lord God, surely because My sheep became a prey, and My sheep became food for every beast of the field because there was no shepherd—neither did My shepherds search for My sheep, but the shepherds fed themselves and fed not My sheep—

⁹ Therefore, O you [spiritual] shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:

¹⁰ Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require My sheep at their hand and cause them to cease feeding the sheep, neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more. I will rescue My sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.

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

¹² As a shepherd seeks out his sheep in the day that he is among his flock that are scattered, so will I seek out My sheep; and I will rescue them out of all places where they have been scattered in the day of clouds and thick darkness.

¹³ And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and will bring them to their own land; and I will feed them upon the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited places of the country.

¹⁴ I will feed them with good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be; there shall they lie down in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.

¹⁵ I will feed My sheep and I will cause them to lie down, says the Lord God.

¹⁶ I will seek that which was lost and bring back that which has strayed, and I will bandage the hurt and the crippled and will strengthen the weak and the sick, but I will destroy the fat and the strong [who have become hardhearted and perverse]; I will feed them with judgment and punishment.^(C)

¹⁷ And as for you, O My flock, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between the rams and the great he-goats [the malicious and the tyrants of the pasture].

¹⁸ Is it too little for you that you feed on the best pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture? And to have drunk of the waters clarified by subsiding, but you must foul the rest of the water with your feet?

¹⁹ And My flock, must they feed on what your feet have trodden and drink what your feet have fouled?

²⁰ Therefore thus says the Lord God to them: Behold, I, I Myself, will judge between fat sheep and impoverished sheep, or fat goats and lean goats.

²¹ Because you push with side and with shoulder and thrust with your horns all those that have become weak and diseased, till you have scattered them abroad,

²² Therefore will I rescue My flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.

²³ And I will raise up over them one Shepherd and He shall feed them, even My Servant ^[a]David; He shall feed them and He shall be their Shepherd.^(D)

²⁴ And I the Lord will be their God and My Servant David a Prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it.

²⁵ And I will confirm with them a covenant of peace and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land, and [My people] shall dwell safely in the wilderness, desert, or pastureland and sleep [confidently] in the woods.^(E)

²⁶ And I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing, and I will cause the showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing [of good insured by God’s favor].

²⁷ And the tree of the field shall yield its fruit and the earth shall yield its increase; and [My people] shall be secure in their land, and they shall be confident and know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bars of their yoke and have delivered them out of the hand of those who made slaves of them.

²⁸ And they shall no more be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the earth devour them, but they shall dwell safely and none shall make them afraid [in the ^[b]day of the Messiah’s reign].^(F)

²⁹ And I will raise up for them a planting of crops for renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land nor bear the reproach of the nations any longer.

³⁰ Then shall they know [positively] that I, the Lord their God, am with them and that they, the house of Israel, are My people, says the Lord God,

³¹ And that you, My sheep, the sheep of My pasture, are [only] men and I am your God, says the Lord God.