Ezekiel 33
1 Yahweh gave me another message. He said,
And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
2 “You human, speak to your fellow Israelis and say this to them: ‘When I bring an enemy army [MTY] to attack a country, and the people of that country choose one of their men and appoint him to be a watchman,
Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, If there be a land over which I bring the sword, and the people of the land take a man from among themselves, and appoint him unto themselves for a watchman;
3 if he sees the enemy army [MTY] coming to attack his country, and he blows a trumpet to warn the people,
And if he see the sword coming over the land, and blow the cornet, and warn the people;
4 if anyone hears the trumpet and does not heed the warning, and as a result he is killed by the sword [of one of his enemies], he will be responsible for his own death [MTY].
And whosoever heareth the sound of the cornet, and taketh no warning; and the sword cometh, and taketh him away: his blood shall be upon his own head.
5 If he had heeded the warning, he would have (have saved his life/still be alive). But because he heard the sound of the trumpet and did not heed that warning, his death will be his own fault.
The sound of the cornet hath he heard, and he hath taken no warning; his blood shall be upon him. But had he taken warning he would have delivered his soul.
6 But if the watchman sees the enemy army [MTY] coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people, and one of his people is killed by an enemy sword, that person will die because of his sin, but I will consider that the watchman is responsible for that man’s death.’
But if the watchman see the sword coming, and blow not the cornet, so that the people be not warned, and the sword cometh, and taketh away from among them some person: this one is taken away for his iniquity; but his blood will I require from the watchman's hand.
7 So, you human, I have appointed you to be a watchman for the Israeli people [MTY]. So always listen to what I say and warn the people for me.
But as for thee, O son of man, I have appointed thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: so that when thou hearest a word from my mouth, thou shalt warn them from me.
8 When I say to some wicked person, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die [because of your sins,’ you must tell him that]. If you do not speak to that person to warn him that he should turn away from his sins, that wicked person will die because of his sins, but I will say that you are responsible for his death [MTY].
When I say unto the wicked, O wicked one, thou shalt surely die; and thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way: that wicked one shall die for his iniquity; but his blood will I require from thy hand.
9 But if you warn that wicked person that he should turn away from his sins, and he does not do that, he will die because of his sins, but you will have saved your life.
Nevertheless, if thou hast indeed warned the wicked of his way to turn away from it, and he do not turn from his way: he shall certainly die for his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
10 You human, say to the Israeli people, ‘This is what you all are saying: “[The guilt that we have for] disobeying God’s laws and sinning is like a heavy weight on us, and it is hurting us, and we are slowly dying. So what can we do to continue to remain alive?”’
But thou, O son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, Thus do ye speak, saying, Truly our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and through them do we pine away: how then shall we live?
11 Say to them, ‘Yahweh the Lord says, “As surely as I am alive, I am not happy when wicked people die; I would prefer that they turn away from their wicked behavior and continue to live. So repent! Turn away from your evil behavior! You Israeli people, do you really want to die [RHQ]?”’
Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord Eternal, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but in the return of the wicked from his way that he may live: return ye, return ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
12 Therefore, you human, say to your fellow Israelis, ‘If righteous people start to disobey me, their being righteous previously will not save them [from being punished]. And if wicked people turn away from their wicked behavior, they will not die because of the sins that they committed [previously]. And if righteous people start to sin, they will not be allowed to remain alive because of their formerly being righteous.’
But thou, son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him on the day of his transgression; and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not stumble through it on the day that he returneth from his wickedness; nor shall the righteous be able to live through the other on the day that he sinneth.
13 If I tell righteous people that they will surely remain alive, but then they trust/think that because they have been righteous previously, they can start to do evil [and not be punished], I will not think about the righteous things that they did previously; they will die because of the evil things that they are doing.
When I say of the righteous, that he shall surely live, and he trusteth to his own righteousness, and committeth what is wrong: all his righteous deeds shall not be remembered, and for his wrong that he hath committed, —through this shall he die.
14 And if I say to some wicked person, ‘You will surely die [because of your sins],’ that person may turn away from his sinful behavior and do what is just and right [DOU].
Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and he turneth from his sin, and executeth justice and righteousness;
15 For example, he may return what he took from another person to guarantee [that that person would pay back what he owes], or he may return things that he has stolen, and he may obey the laws that will enable [those who obey them] to remain alive, and he will not continue to do evil things. If that happens, he will surely remain alive; he will not die [because of the sins that he committed previously].
If the wicked restore the pledge, make restitution for what he hath robbed, walk in the statutes of life, so as not to do any wrong: he shall surely live, he shall not die.
16 I will not think about the sins that he has committed; he will surely remain alive.
All his sins that he hath committed shall not be remembered unto him: justice and righteousness hath he executed, he shall surely live.
17 Your fellow Israelis say, ‘What Yahweh does is not fair.’ But it is your behavior that is not fair.
Yet say the children of thy people, The way of the Lord is not equitable: while, as to them, their way is not equitable.
18 If a righteous person turns away from doing what is righteous and starts to do what is evil, [it is fair that] he die because of his sins.
When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and doth what is wrong, he shall even die therefore.
19 And if a wicked person turns away from his wicked behavior and does what is right and fair [DOU], [it is fair] for him to remain alive because of doing that.
And when the wicked returneth from his wickedness, and executeth justice and righteousness, he shall surely live therefore.
20 But you Israeli people still say, ‘What Yahweh does is not fair.’ But I will judge each of you for what you do.”
Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equitable. Every one after his own ways will I judge you, O house of Israel.
21 Almost twelve years [after we had been taken to Babylonia], on the fifth day of the tenth month [of that year], a man who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me [in Babylon] and said, “Jerusalem has been captured!”
And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month after our exile, that there came unto me one that had escaped out of Jerusalem, saying, The city hath been smitten.
22 The evening before that man arrived, Yahweh took control [MTY] of me, and when that man arrived, Yahweh enabled me to speak again; I was no longer forced to be silent.
Now the inspiration of the Lord was come upon me in the evening, before the coming of the one who had escaped; and he had opened my mouth, before he was come to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened and I was not kept dumb any more.
23 Then Yahweh gave a message to me. He said,
And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
24 “You human, the people who are living in the ruins in Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one person, but Yahweh [promised him that he and his descendants] would possess this land. But we are many; so surely this land has been given to us [by Yahweh] to continue to possess.’
Son of man, they that dwell in these ruins in the land of Israel say as followeth, But one man was Abraham, and he obtained the land as an inheritance; and as we are many, the land must [surely] be given to us for an inheritance.
25 So send a message to them. Say, ‘This is what Yahweh the Lord says: You eat meat that still has the animal’s blood in it. You still worship idols. And you still murder others [MTY]. So, (should this land belong to you?/this land should certainly not belong to you!) [RHQ]
Therefore say unto them, Thus hath said the Lord Eternal, By the blood do ye eat, and your eyes do you lift up toward your idols, and blood do ye shed: and ye expect to possess the land?
26 You rely on using your swords [to obtain things that you want]. You do many detestable things. Each of you has sex with other men’s wives. So (why should you continue to possess the land of Israel?/you should not continue to possess this land!) [RHQ]’
Ye depend upon your sword, ye commit abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbor's wife: and ye expect to possess the land?
27 Send this message to them: ‘This is what Yahweh the Lord says: As surely as I am alive, those who are left in the ruins [in Jerusalem] will also be killed by [their enemies’] swords, and those who are living in the countryside will be killed by wild animals, and those who are living in forts and caves will die from a plague.
Thus shalt thou say unto them, Thus hath said the Lord Eternal, As I live, surely those that are in the ruined places shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts that they may devour him, and those that are in the strongholds and in the caves shall die through the pestilence.
28 I will cause your country to become a desolate wasteland. You will no longer be proud of being a strong country. The mountains of Israel will become very desolate, with the result that no one will walk across them.
And I will render the land desolate and wasted, and the pride of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, with none to pass through them.
29 Then, when I have caused your country to become a desolate wasteland because of all the detestable things that you have done, you will know that I, Yahweh, [have the power to do what I say that I will do].’
And they shall experience that I am the Lord, when I render the land desolate and wasted, because of all their abominations which they have committed.
30 As for you, you human, your fellow Israelis [here in Babylon] are talking about you along the city walls and at the doors of their houses. They are saying to each other, ‘Come and listen to the message that has come from Yahweh!’
And thou, son of man, [there are] the children of thy people, who are talking about thee by the walls and in the entrances of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Do come, and hear what the word is which cometh forth from the Lord.
31 My people come to you as they often have done, and they sit in front of you to listen to what you say. But they do not do what you tell them that they must do. With their mouths they say that they love me, but in their inner beings they are eager to acquire things by doing what is unjust.
And then they come unto thee as the people come, and they sit before thee [as] my people, and they hear thy words, but do not execute them; for as merry songs they carry them in their mouth, while their heart goeth after their unlawful gains.
32 To them, you are only a man who sings love songs with a beautiful voice, and you play a musical instrument well. They hear what you say, but they do not do what you tell them to do.
And, lo, thou art unto them as a merry song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well: and [thus] they hear thy words, but execute them not.
33 The terrible things that I have said will happen to them will surely happen. And then they will know that a prophet has been among them, [and that you are that prophet].”
But when it cometh to pass, [lo, it will come, ] then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them.
