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¹ AND the word of the LORD came to me, saying,² Son of man, speak to your own people and say to them, When I bring the sword upon a land, let the people of the land take a man from among them and make him their watchman.³ And when he sees the sword coming upon them, he shall blow the trumpet and warn the people;⁴ Then whosoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not heed the warning, if the sword should come and take his life away, his blood shall be upon his own head.⁵ But if he should take heed, he shall deliver his life.⁶ But when the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and does not warn the people, and the sword comes and takes the life from among them, that life is taken away in his iniquity; but I will require his blood at the watchmans hand.⁷ So you, O Son of man, I have set you a watchman to the house of Israel: therefore you shall hear the word from my mouth, you shall warn them from me.⁸ When I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die; and you do not speak to the wicked man that he may take heed from his evil way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hands.⁹ Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked that he may turn from his evil way; and if he does not turn from his evil way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.

¹⁰ You therefore, O Son of man, say to the house of Israel. Thus have you spoken, saying, Our iniquity and our sins be upon us, and we are pining away in them; how can we live?¹¹ Say to them, As I live, says the LORD God, I do not desire the death of the wicked; but that the wicked should turn from his evil way and live; therefore you must repent and turn from your evil ways, and you shall not die, O house of Israel.¹² Therefore, Son of man, say to your own people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day that he sins; as for the iniquity of the wicked, he shall not fall by it in the day when he turns from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live because of his righteousness in the day that he sins.¹³ When I shall say to the righteous that he shall surely live, and he trusts in his own righteousness and then commits iniquity, all his righteousness which he had done shall not be remembered to him; but for the iniquity which he has committed, he shall die.¹⁴ Again, when I say to the wicked, You shall surely die, and he turns from his sins and does that which is just and right,¹⁵ And he shall restore the pledge which he has taken and return what he has acquired unjustly and walk in the commandments of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.¹⁶ None of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered to him; but by the justice and righteousness which he has done, he shall surely live.¹⁷ Yet your people say, The way of the LORD is not fair; but it is their own ways that are not fair.¹⁸ When a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he shall die in his iniquity.¹⁹ And when a wicked man turns from his wickedness and does that which is just and right, he shall live thereby.²⁰ Yet you say, The way of the LORD is not fair; O house of Israel, I will judge every one of you according to his ways.

²¹ And it came to pass in the eleventh year of our captivity, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, that one who had escaped from Jerusalem came and said to me, The city has been destroyed.²² Now the hand of the LORD had been upon me in the evening, before he who had escaped came; and had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened and I was dumb no more.²³ Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,²⁴ Son of man, those who inhabit these waste places of the land of Israel are saying, Abraham was only one man, and yet he inherited the land; but we are many; are we not going to inherit it?²⁵ Therefore say to them, Thus says the LORD God: Because you eat meat with the blood and lift up your eyes toward your idols and drink blood, do you expect to inherit the land?²⁶ You rely on your swords, you commit abomination, and you defile every one his neighbors wife; and do you expect to inherit the land?²⁷ Say to them, Thus says the LORD God: As I live, all of those who dwell in the waste places shall fall by the sword; and he that is in the open field, I will give to the wild beasts to be devoured, and those who are in the forts and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.²⁸ For I will lay the land desolate and waste, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through.²⁹ Then shall they know that I am the LORD, when I have laid the land desolate and waste because of their abominations which they have committed.

³⁰ And as for you, O Son of man, your people are gossiping about you by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come and hear what is the word that comes forth from the LORD.³¹ And the people come to you and sit before you, and they hear your words, but they will not do them, because their mouths are full of falsehood and they follow after the thoughts of their own hearts.³² And, lo, you are to them like a song and like a pleasant voice and like the sweet sound of a harp; for they hear your words, but they do them not.³³ And when your words shall come to pass, then they shall know that you are a prophet among them.