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A Watchman for Israel

16 After seven days the Lord gave me a message. He said, 17 “Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for Israel. Whenever you receive a message from me, warn people immediately. 18 If I warn the wicked, saying, ‘You are under the penalty of death,’ but you fail to deliver the warning, they will die in their sins. And I will hold you responsible for their deaths. 19 If you warn them and they refuse to repent and keep on sinning, they will die in their sins. But you will have saved yourself because you obeyed me.

20 “If righteous people turn away from their righteous behavior and ignore the obstacles I put in their way, they will die. And if you do not warn them, they will die in their sins. None of their righteous acts will be remembered, and I will hold you responsible for their deaths. 21 But if you warn righteous people not to sin and they listen to you and do not sin, they will live, and you will have saved yourself, too.”

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16 (A)Now it happened at the end of seven days, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 17 “Son of man, I have given you as a (B)watchman to the house of Israel; so you will hear a word from My mouth, and you shall (C)warn them from Me. 18 When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his (D)blood I will require at your hand. 19 Yet if you have (E)warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have (F)delivered yourself. 20 Again, (G)when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a (H)stumbling block before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. 21 However, if you have (I)warned [a]the righteous man that the righteous should not sin and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; and you have delivered yourself.”

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 3:21 Lit him, the righteous