Ezekiel 33:9-22

English Standard Version

⁹^(A)But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, ^(B)that person shall die in his iniquity, ^(C)but you will have delivered your soul.

Why Will You Die, Israel?

¹⁰“And you, ^(D)son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you said: ‘Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and ^(E)we rot away because of them. ^(F)How then can we live?’ ¹¹Say to them, ^(G)As I live, declares the Lord God, ^(H)I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; ^(I)turn back, turn back from your evil ways, ^(J)for why will you die, O house of Israel?

¹²^(K)“And you, son of man, say to ^(L)your people, ^(M)The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses, ^(N)and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness, ^(O)and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness^[a] when he sins. ¹³Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet ^(P)if he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injustice that he has done he shall die. ¹⁴Again, ^(Q)though I say to the wicked, ^(R)‘You shall surely die,’ yet ^(S)if he turns from his sin and does what is just and right, ¹⁵if the wicked ^(T)restores the pledge, ^(U)gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks ^(V)in the statutes of life, not doing injustice, he shall surely live; he shall not die. ¹⁶^(W)None of the sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he shall surely live.

¹⁷“Yet ^(X)your people say, ^(Y)‘The way of the Lord is not just,’ when it is their own way that is not just. ¹⁸^(Z)When the righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it. ¹⁹And ^(AA)when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he shall live by this. ²⁰Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, ^(AB)I will judge each of you according to his ways.”

Jerusalem Struck Down

²¹In the ^(AC)twelfth year ^(AD)of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, ^(AE)a fugitive from Jerusalem came to me and said, ^(AF)“The city has been struck down.” ²²^(AG)Now ^(AH)the hand of the Lord had been upon me the evening before the fugitive came; and he had opened my mouth by the time the man came to me in the morning, so my mouth was opened, and I was no longer mute.