Ezekiel 33

Modern English Version

Renewal of Ezekiel’s Call

33 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ² Son of man, speak to the children of your people and say to them: If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them and set him for their watchman, ³ and he sees the sword come upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, ⁴ then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. ⁵ He heard the sound of the trumpet yet did not take warning. His blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning delivers his soul. ⁶ But if the watchman sees the sword come and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned and a sword comes and takes a person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity. But his blood I will require from the hand of the watchman.

⁷ Now as for you, son of man: I have set you a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them 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 iniquity. But his blood I will require from your hand. ⁹ Nevertheless, if you on your part 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 delivered your soul.

God’s Justice and Mercy

¹⁰ Therefore as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel: Thus you have spoken, saying, “Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we pine away in them. How should we then 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, turn from your evil ways! For why will you die, O house of Israel?

¹² Therefore you, son of man, say to the sons of your people: The righteousness of a righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression. As for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it in the day that he turns from his wickedness. Nor shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sins. ¹³ When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live and he so trusts in his righteousness that he commits iniquity, all his righteousness shall not be remembered. But for that iniquity of his that he has committed, he shall die. ¹⁴ Again, when I say to the wicked, “You shall surely die,” and he turns from his sin and does that which is lawful and right, ¹⁵ if the wicked man restores a pledge, gives back what he had robbed, walks in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live. He shall not die. ¹⁶ None of his sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him. He has done what is lawful and right. He shall surely live.

¹⁷ Yet the sons of your people say, “The way of the Lord is not right,” when their way is not right. ¹⁸ When the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he shall die by it. ¹⁹ But if the wicked turns from his wickedness and does that which is lawful and right, he shall live by them. ²⁰ Yet you say, “The way of the Lord is not right.” O house of Israel, I will judge you, every one according to his ways.

The Fall of Jerusalem

²¹ In the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, one who had escaped out of Jerusalem came to me, saying, “The city is taken.” ²² Now the hand of the Lord was upon me in the evening, before those who escaped came. And He opened my mouth at the time they came to me in the morning. Therefore my mouth was opened and I was speechless no more.

²³ Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ²⁴ Son of man, those who inhabit these wastes in the land of Israel are saying, “Abraham was one, yet he inherited the land. But to us who are many, the land has been given for an inheritance.” ²⁵ Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord God: You eat meat with the blood in it and lift up your eyes toward your idols as you shed blood. Should you then possess the land? ²⁶ You rely upon your sword, you work abominations, and every one of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. Should you then possess the land?

²⁷ Thus you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord God: As I live, surely those who are in the ruins shall fall by the sword, and him who is in the open field I will give to the beasts to be devoured, and those who are in the forts and in the caves shall die of pestilence. ²⁸ For I will make the land a desolation and a waste, and the pomp of her strength shall cease. And the mountains of Israel shall be desolate so that none shall pass through. ²⁹ Then shall they know that I am the Lord, when I make the land a desolation and a waste because of all their abominations which they have committed.

³⁰ As for you, son of man, the sons of your people are talking about you by the walls and in the doorways of the houses; and they speak to one another, each saying to his brother, “Come now, and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.” ³¹ They come to you as people come, and they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words; but they will not do them. For they do the lustful desires in their mouth, and their heart goes after their covetousness. ³² You are to them as a sensual song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument. For they hear your words, but they do not do them.

³³ When this comes to pass, and it is coming to pass, then shall they know that a prophet has been among them.