Ezekiel 33 - Revised Standard Version(RSV)

1 when he sins.

13Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet if he trusts in his righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered; but in the iniquity that he has committed he shall die.

14Again, though I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ yet if he turns from his sin and does what is lawful and right,

15if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life, committing no iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.

16None of the sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right, he shall surely live.

17“Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just’; when it is their own way that is not just.

18When the righteous turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, he shall die for it.

19And when the wicked turns from his wickedness, and does what is lawful and right, he shall live by it.

20Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways.”

21In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, a man who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city has fallen.”

22Now 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 dumb.

23The word of the Lord came to me:

24“Son of man, the inhabitants of these waste places in the land of Israel keep saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he got possession of the land; but we are many; the land is surely given us to possess.’

25Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord God: You eat flesh with the blood, and lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood; shall you then possess the land?

26You resort to the sword, you commit abominations and each of you defiles his neighbor's wife; shall you then possess the land?

27Say this to them, Thus says the Lord God: As I live, surely those who 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 who are in strongholds and in caves shall die by pestilence.

28And I will make the land a desolation and a waste; and her proud might shall come to an end; and the mountains of Israel shall be so desolate that none will pass through.

29Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have made the land a desolation and a waste because of all their abominations which they have committed.

30“As for you, son of man, your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, ‘Come, and hear what the word is that comes forth from the Lord.’

31And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with their lips they show much love, but their heart is set on their gain.

32And lo, you are to them like one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it.

33When this comes—and come it will!—then they will know that a prophet has been among them.”