Son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them: A land, when I bring a sword against it — and the people of the land take one man from among them and set him for themselves as a watchman,
and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people:
then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and is not warned, and a sword comes and takes him — his blood will be on his own head.
The sound of the trumpet he heard and was not warned; his blood will be on him. But the one who is warned has rescued his soul.
And the watchman, if he sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a soul from among them — he is taken in his iniquity, and his blood I will require from the hand of the watchman.
And you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. And you will hear a word from my mouth and warn them from me.
When I say to the wicked: Wicked one, you will surely die — and you have not spoken to warn the wicked from his way — he, the wicked, will die in his iniquity, and his blood I will require from your hand.
But you, if you have warned the wicked from his way, to turn from it, and he has not turned from his way, he will die in his iniquity, and you have delivered your soul.
The Message of the Watchman
And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel: So you have said, saying: Our transgressions and our sins are on us, and in them we are wasting away — how then can we live?
Say to them: As I live, the utterance of the Lord GOD, I do not delight in the death of the wicked, but in the turning of the wicked from his way, that he may live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! And why should you die, house of Israel?
And you, son of man, say to the sons of your people: The righteousness of the righteous will not deliver him on the day of his transgression, and the wickedness of the wicked — he will not stumble by it on the day he turns from his wickedness; and the righteous will not be able to live by it on the day he sins.
When I say to the righteous: You will surely live — and he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, all his righteous acts will not be remembered, and in the injustice he did, by it he will die.
And when I say to the wicked: You will surely die — and he turns from his sin and does judgment and righteousness,
the wicked returns a pledge, repays what he seized by robbery, walks in the statutes of life so as not to do injustice — he will surely live, he will not die.
None of his sins that he sinned will be remembered against him. Judgment and righteousness he has done; he will surely live.
And the sons of your people say: The way of the Lord is not measured — but it is their way that is not measured.
When the righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice, he dies by them.
And when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does judgment and righteousness, by them he lives.
And you say: The way of the Lord is not measured. Each according to his ways I will judge you, house of Israel.
Word of Jerusalem’s Fall
And it was in the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth of the month, that the escapee came to me from Jerusalem, saying: The city has been struck.
And the hand of the LORD had been on me in the evening, before the escapee came; and he opened my mouth before he came to me in the morning. And my mouth was opened, and I was no longer mute.
And the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
Son of man, those dwelling in these ruins on the land of Israel are saying: Abraham was one, and he possessed the land; and we are many — to us the land is given as a possession.
Therefore say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD: Over the blood you eat, and your eyes you lift to your idols, and blood you shed — and will you possess the land?
You have stood on your sword, you have done abomination, and each of you has defiled his neighbor wife — and will you possess the land?
Thus you will say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD: As I live, surely those who are in the ruins will fall by the sword, and the one on the face of the field I have given to the beast to devour him, and those in the strongholds and in the caves will die by the pestilence.
And I will make the land a desolation and a waste, and the pride of her strength will cease; and the mountains of Israel will be desolate, with none passing through.
And they will know that I am the LORD, when I make the land a desolation and a waste for all their abominations that they did.
And you, son of man — the sons of your people are talking about you beside the walls and in the doorways of the houses, and one speaks with another, each with his brother, saying: Come now and hear what the word is that goes out from the LORD.
And they come to you as a people comes, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words — and they do not do them. For lust is in their mouth; that is what they do, and after their unjust gain their heart goes.
And see, you are to them like a song of lust, beautiful of voice and playing well; and they hear your words, and they do not do them.
And when it comes — see, it is coming — then they will know that a prophet has been among them.
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