The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Ezekiel 33
1 Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
2 “Son of man, speak to the children of
your people, and tell 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 doesn’t heed the warning, if
the sword comes and takes him away, his
blood will be on his own head.
5 He heard the sound of the trumpet and
didn’t take warning. His blood will be on
him; whereas if he had heeded the 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 aren’t 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 from my mouth, and
give them warnings from me.
8 When I tell the wicked, ‘O wicked man,
you will surely die,’ and you don’t speak
to warn the wicked from his way, that
wicked man will die in his iniquity, but I
will require his blood at your hand.
9 Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked of
his way to turn from it, and he doesn’t turn
from his way; he will die in his iniquity, but
you have delivered your soul.
10 “You, son of man, tell the house of
Israel: ‘You say this, “Our transgressions
and our sins are on us, and we pine away
in them. How then can we live?” ’
11 Tell 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, house of
Israel?” ’
12 “You, son of man, tell the children
of your people, ‘The righteousness of the
righteous will not deliver him in the day of
his disobedience. And as for the wickedness of
the wicked, he will not fall by it in
the day that he turns from his wickedness;
neither will he who is righteous be able to
live by it in the day that he sins.
13 When I tell the righteous that he will
surely live, if he trusts in his righteousness
and commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds
will be remembered; but he will die in his
iniquity that he has committed.
14 Again, when I say to the wicked, “You
will surely die,” if he turns from his sin and
does that which is lawful and right,
15 if the wicked restore the pledge, give
again that which he had taken by robbery,
walk in the statutes of life, committing no
iniquity, he will surely live. He will not die.
16 None of his sins that he has committed
will be remembered against him. He has
done that whichis lawful andright. 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
will even die therein.
19 When the wicked turns from his
wickedness and does that which is lawful
and right, he will live by it.
20 Yet you say, “The way ofthe Lord is not
fair.” House ofIsrael,I will judge every one
of you after his ways.
21 In the twelfth year of our captivity,
in the tenth month, in the fifth day of
the month, one who had escaped out of
Jerusalem came to me, saying, “The city
has been defeated!”
22 Now Yahweh’s hand had been on me
in the evening, before he who 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 no longer
mute.
23 Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
24 “Son of man, those who inhabit the
waste places in the land of Israel speak,
saying, ‘Abraham was one, and he inherited
the land; but we are many. The land
is given us for inheritance.’
25 Therefore tell them, ‘The Lord Yahweh
says: “You eat with the blood, and lift up
your eyes to your idols, and shed blood. So
should you possess the land?
26 You stand on your sword, you work
abomination, and every one of you defiles
his neighbor’s wife. So should you possess
the land?”
27 “You shall tell them, ‘The Lord Yahweh
says: “As I live, surely those who are in
the waste places will fall by the sword. I
will give whoever is in the open field to the
animals to be devoured, and those who are
in the strongholds and in the caves will die
of the pestilence.
28 I will make the land a desolation and
an astonishment. The pride of her power
will cease. The mountains of Israel will be
desolate, so that no one will pass through.
29 Thenthey will know thatI am Yahweh,
when I have made the land a desolation
and an astonishment because of all their
abominations which they have committed.
30 “As for you, son of man, the children
of your people talk about you by the walls
and in the doors of the houses, and speak
to one another, everyone to his brother,
saying, ‘Please come and hear what the
word is that comes out from Yahweh.’
31 They come to you as the people come,
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 Behold, you are to them as a very
lovely song of one who has a pleasant
voice, and can play well on an instrument;
for they hear your words, butthey don’t do
them.
33 “When this comes to pass—behold, it
comes—then they will know that a prophet
has been among them.”