 1 The Word of the Lord came to me saying, 2 Son of man, speak to the children of your people and say to them: When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts 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 does come and take 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 himself. But he who takes warning shall deliver his soul. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming, and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned. If the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity. But I will require his blood at the watchman's hand. 7 You, son of man, I have set you a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore you shall hear the Word from my mouth, and warn them from me. 8 When I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die. If you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked one shall die in his iniquity. But I will require his blood at your hand. 9 But, if you warn the wicked of his way, to turn from it. If he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul. 10 You, son of man, speak to the house of Israel. So you have spoken saying, When our transgressions and our sins are on us, and we are wasting away in them, How then shall we live? 11 Say to them: As I live, says the Lord God, I have no delight in the death of the wicked, except in the turning of the wicked from his way, and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways. For why will you die, O house of Israel? 12 Therefore, son of man, say to the children of your people: The righteousness of the righteous 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 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 shall say to the righteous that he shall surely live. If he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered. But for his iniquity that he has committed, he shall die for it. 14 Again, when I say to the wicked, You shall surely die. If he turns from his sin and does justice and right; 15 if the wicked gives back the pledge, gives again what he had robbed, walks in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, then he will surely live. He will not die. 16 None of his sins that he has committed will be called to his memory. He has done justice and right. He will surely live. 17 Yet the children 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 by them. 19 But if the wicked turns from his wickedness and does justice and right, he shall live by them. 20 Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not fair. O house of Israel, I will judge you, each one according to his ways. 21 It was in the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth of the month, one who escaped out of Jerusalem came to me saying, The city is stricken. 22 The Lord's hand was on me in the evening, before the one who had escaped came. He opened my mouth until he came to me in the morning and my mouth was opened and I was no longer silent+. 23 The Word of the Lord came to me saying, 24 Son of man, those who live in those wastes of the land of Israel are speaking saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land. But we are many. The land is given to us for inheritance. 25 So say to them, Thus says the Lord God: 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 work abomination, each defiling his neighbor's wife. And shall you possess the land? 27 Speak to them in this way, Thus says the Lord God: As I live, surely those who are in the ruins shall fall by the sword, and I will give him who is in the open field to the beasts to be eaten up, and those in the forts and in the caves shall die of the plague. 28 For I have made the land a ruin, and the pride of her strength has ceased. And the mountains of Israel shall be a waste, so that none shall pass through. 29 Then they will know that I am the Lord when I have made the land a ruin because of all their abominations that they have committed. 30 You, son of man, the children of your people are still talking about you by the walls and in the doors of the houses and speaking to one another, each one to his brother saying, I ask you to come and hear the Word that comes from the Lord. 31 They come to you as the people come and they sit before you as my people and they hear your words. But they will not do them. For with their mouth they show much love but their heart goes after unjust gain. 32 You are to them as a singer of love songs with a beautiful voice and able to play well on an instrument. For they hear your words, but they do not do them. 33 When this happens. it will come. Then they will know that a prophet has been among them.
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