Ezekiel 33

Ezekiel Appointed as a Watchman and His Responsibility

¹And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,[#Literally “was”; #Literally “to say”]

²“Son of man, speak to your people, and you must say to them, ‘A land, if I bring over it a sword and the people of the land take a man, one from their number, and they appoint him for them as a watchman,[#Or “mortal,” or “son of humankind”; #Literally “the children of your people”]

³and he sees the sword coming against the land, and he blows on the horn and he warns the people,

⁴and anyone who listens hears the sound of the horn and he does not take warning and the sword comes and it takes him, his blood will be on his own head.[#Literally “the listening”; #Literally “not he takes warning”]

⁵For he heard the sound of the horn and he did not take warning; his blood will be on him. But if he took warning, he saved his life.

⁶And as for the watchman, if he sees the sword coming and he does not blow the horn, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and it takes their lives, he will be taken through his guilt, but his blood from the hand of the watchman I will seek.’[#Literally “and not he blows on”; #Literally “it takes from them a life”]

⁷“And you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; if you hear a word from my mouth, then you must warn them from me.[#Or “mortal,” or “son of humankind”]

⁸When I say to the wicked, ‘Wicked one, you will certainly die,’ and you did not speak to warn the wicked from his way, he, the wicked, will die by his guilt, but his blood I will seek from your hand.[#Literally “At my saying”; #Literally “and not you spoke”]

⁹But, you, if you warn the wicked from his way, to turn from it, and he does not turn from his way, he will die by his guilt, and you will have saved your life.[#Literally “and not he turns”]

¹⁰“And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, saying, ‘So you said, saying, “Indeed, our transgressions and our sins are on us, and because of them we are rotting, and how can we live?” ’[#Or “mortal,” or “son of humankind”; #Literally “to say”; #Literally “to say”]

¹¹Say to them, ‘As I live,’ declares the Lord Yahweh, ‘Surely I have no delight in the death of the wicked, except in the wicked returning from his way, and he lives. Turn back! Turn back from your ways, O evil ones, for why should you die, house of Israel?’[#Literally “live I”; #Literally “declaration of”; #Literally “if”; #Literally “for it”]

¹²“So you, son of man, say to your people that the righteousness of the righteous shall not save him in the day of his transgression, and the wickedness of the wicked will not cause him to stumble on the day of his returning from his wickedness; and the righteous will not be able to live by it on the day when he returns to his sin.[#Or “And”; #Or “mortal,” or “son of humankind”; #Literally “the children of your people”; #Literally “not he will stumbled by it”]

¹³When I say to the righteous, ‘Certainly he will live,’ and he trusted in his righteousness, and he turns and he does injustice, all of his righteousness will not be remembered, and because of his injustice that he did, because of it he will die.[#Or “on”; #According to the reading tradition (Qere)]

¹⁴And when I say to the wicked, ‘Certainly you will die,’ but he returns from his sin and he does justice and righteousness—[#Or “and”]

¹⁵for example, the wicked returns a pledge for a loan, he restores stolen property, he goes in the statutes of life so as not to do injustice—certainly he will live; he will not die.[#Literally “robbed/stolen items”]

¹⁶All of his sins that he committed, they will not be remembered against him, and he did justice and righteousness; certainly he will live.[#Literally “sins that he sinned”; #Or “for”]

¹⁷“Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair!’ yet their way is not fair.[#Or “And”; #Literally “the children of your people”]

¹⁸When the righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice, then he will die because of it.[#Literally “by/in them”]

¹⁹And when the wicked turns from his wickedness, and he does justice and righteousness, because of it he will certainly live![#Hebrew “them”; #Literally “he, he will live”]

²⁰Yet you said, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair!’ I will judge you, house of Israel, each person according to his ways.”

²¹And then it was in the twelfth year, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month of our exile, a survivor from Jerusalem came to me, saying, “The city was destroyed!”[#Literally “and it happened”; #Literally “two of ten”; #Literally “to say”]

²²And the hand of Yahweh was on me on the evening before the coming of the survivor, and he opened my mouth before the survivor came to me in the morning, and my mouth was opened, and I was no longer dumb.[#Literally “to the face of”; #Literally “until coming to me in the morning”; #Literally “and not I was dumb still”; #Or “silent” or “speechless”]

²³And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,[#Literally “was”; #Literally “to say”]

²⁴“Son of man, the inhabitants of these ruins on the soil of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was one man, and he took possession of the land, and we are many; the land has been given for us as a possession.’[#Or “mortal,” or “son of humankind”; #Or “to”]

²⁵Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “You eat blood in your meat, and you raise your eyes to your idols and you pour out blood, and yet you want to take possession of the land?[#Or “you would take possession of”]

²⁶You rely on your sword, you do a detestable thing, and each man defiles the wife of his neighbor, and yet you want to take possession of the land?” ’[#Literally “a man the wife of neighbor you defile”; #Or “you would take possession of the land”]

²⁷“Thus you must say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “As I live, surely whoever is in the ruins, by the sword they will fall, and whoever is on the surface of the open field, I will give him to the animals to eat him, and whoever is in the stronghold and in the cave, they will die by the plague.[#Literally “I live”; #Literally “if not”; #Hebrew “animal”]

²⁸And I will make the land a desolation and a wasteland, and the pride of its strength will come to an end, and the mountains of Israel will be desolate with no one traveling through them.” ’[#Literally “from there is not someone going over”]

²⁹And they will know that I am Yahweh when I make my land a desolation and a wasteland, because of all of their detestable things that they have done.

³⁰“And you, son of man, your people, the ones talking together concerning you beside the walls and in the doorways of the houses, each one with his brother saying, ‘Please come and hear what is the word that is going out from Yahweh.’[#Or “mortal,” or “son of humankind”; #Literally “the children of your people”; #Literally “to say”; #Literally “the going out from with Yahweh”]

³¹And they come to you as people do, and they sit before you, and my people hear your words, and they do not do them, for they are showing passion in their mouth, but their heart is going after ill-gotten gain.[#Literally “like the coming of a people”; #Literally “to the face of you”; #Or “expressing”]

³²Now, look! You are to them like a sensual song, beautiful of voice and played well on an instrument, and they hear your words, but they are not doing them.[#Literally “like a song of lust”; #Literally “doing good to play a music instrument”; #Literally “and/but doing there is not they them”]

³³So when it comes, look! It is coming! And then they will know that a prophet was in the midst of them.”[#Or “And”; #Literally “in/at her coming”]