True Justice

18 The word of the Lord came to me. He said, ² “Why do you people say this proverb:

³ But the Lord God says, “By my life, I swear that people in Israel will not think this proverb is true anymore! ⁴ I will treat everyone, child and parent, just the same. The one who sins is the one who will die!

¹⁹ “You might ask, ‘Why will the son not be punished for his father’s sins?’ The reason is that the son was fair and did good things. He very carefully obeyed my laws, so he will live. ²⁰ The one who sins is the one who will be put to death. A son will not be punished for his father’s sins, and a father will not be punished for his son’s sins. A good man’s goodness belongs to him alone, and a bad man’s evil belongs to him alone.

²¹ “Now, if evil people change their lives, they will live and not die. They might stop doing all the bad things they did and begin to carefully obey all my laws. They might become fair and good. ²² God will not remember all the bad things they did. He will remember only their goodness, so they will live!”

²³ The Lord God says, “I don’t want evil people to die. I want them to change their lives so that they can live!

²⁴ “Now, maybe good people might stop being good. They might change their lives and begin to do all the terrible things that evil people have done in the past. (The evil people changed, so they can live.) So if those good people change and become bad, God will not remember all the good things they did. He will remember that they turned against him and began to sin. So they will die because of their sin.

²⁵ “You people might say, ‘The Lord isn’t fair!’ But listen, family of Israel. I am fair. You are the ones who are not fair! ²⁶ If good people change and become evil, they must die for the bad things they do. ²⁷ And if evil people change and become good and fair, they will save their lives. They will live! ²⁸ They saw how wicked they were and came back to me. They stopped doing the evil things they did in the past. So they will live! They will not die!”

²⁹ The people of Israel said, “That’s not fair! The Lord isn’t fair!”

“I am fair! You are the ones who are not fair! ³⁰ Why? Because, family of Israel, I will judge each of you only for what you do!” This is what the Lord God said. “So come back to me! Stop committing those crimes and do away with those things that cause you to sin! ³¹ Throw away all the terrible idols with which you committed your crimes! Change your heart and spirit. People of Israel, why should you do things that will cost you your life? ³² I don’t want to kill you! Please come back and live!” This is what the Lord God said.