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¹ And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,² Son of man, speak to the sons of your people, and say to them, When I bring the sword on a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and set him for their watchman;³ if, when he sees the sword come on the land, he blows the trumpet, and warns the people;⁴ then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet, and does not take warning, if the sword comes, and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head.⁵ He heard the sound of the trumpet, and did not take warning; his blood shall be on him; whereas if he had taken warning, he would have delivered his soul.⁶ But if the watchman sees the sword come, and doesn't blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes, and takes any person from among them; he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand.⁷ So you, son of man, I have set you a watchman to the house of Israel; therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning 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 at your hand.⁹ Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and he does not turn from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul.

¹⁰ And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel: Thus you speak, saying, Our transgressions and our sins are on us, and we pine away in them; how then can we live?¹¹ Say to them, As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but 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 And you, son of man, say to the sons of your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it in the day that he turns from his wickedness; neither shall he that is righteous be able to live by it in the day that he sins.¹³ When I say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trusts to his righteousness, and commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered; but in his iniquity that he has committed, therein he shall die.¹⁴ Again, when I say to the wicked, You shall surely die; if he turns from his sin, and does that which is lawful and right;¹⁵ if the wicked restores the pledge, gives again that which he had taken by robbery, walks in the statutes of life, committing no 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 that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.¹⁷ Yet the sons of your people say, The way of the Lord is not fair: but as for them, their way is not fair.¹⁸ When the righteous turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, he shall even die therein.¹⁹ And when the wicked turns from his wickedness, and does that which is lawful 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 you every one after his ways.

²¹ And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth [month], in the fifth [day] of the month, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came to me, saying, The city is smitten.²² Now the hand of Yahweh had been on me in the evening, before he that had escaped came; and he had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was mute no more.²³ And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,²⁴ Son of man, those that inhabit those waste places in the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land was given to us for inheritance.²⁵ Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood: and shall you possess the land?²⁶ You stand on your sword, you do disgusting things, and you defile every one his neighbor's wife: and shall you possess the land?²⁷ Thus you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: As I live, surely those that are in the waste places shall fall by the sword; and him that is in the open field I will give to the beasts to be devoured; and those that are in the strongholds and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.²⁸ And I will make the land a desolation and an astonishment; and the pride of her power shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, so that none shall pass through.²⁹ Then they shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have made the land a desolation and an astonishment, because of all the disgusting things that they have done.

³⁰ And as for you, son of man, the sons of your people talk of you by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what the word is that comes forth from Yahweh.³¹ And they come to you like the coming of a people, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but don't do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their gain.³² And, look, you are to them as a very lovely song of one that has a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they don't do them.³³ And when this comes to pass, (look, it comes,) then they shall know that a prophet has been among them.