Dual PanelThe watchman prepares for the restored kingdom
1THIS word of the LORD came to me:
2“O man, say to your fellow-countrymen: When I bring a sword against a land, its people choose one of themselves to be their watchman,
3and if he sees the enemy approach, he blows his trumpet to warn the people.
4If anyone does not heed the warning and is overtaken by the sword, his fate be on his own head!
5He ignored the alarm when he heard it. Had he taken heed, he would have escaped with his life.
6But if the watchman does not blow his trumpet to give warning when he sees the approach of the enemy, and if anyone who is killed is caught with his sins on him, I shall hold the watchman answerable for his death.
7“I have appointed you, O man, a watchman for the Israelites, and you must pass to them any warnings you receive from me.
8If I pronounce sentence of death on a person because he is wicked and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that person will die because of his sin, but I shall hold you answerable for his death.
9However, if you have warned him to give up his ways, and he persists in them, he will die because of his sin, but you will have saved yourself.
10“O man, say to the Israelites: You complain, ‘We are burdened by our sins and offences; we are pining away because of them, and despair of life.’
11Tell them: As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no desire for the death of the wicked. I would rather that the wicked should mend their ways and live. Give them up, give up your evil ways. Israelites, why should you die?
12“O man, say to your fellow-countrymen: When a righteous person transgresses, his righteousness will not save him. When a wicked person mends his ways, his former wickedness will not bring him down. When a righteous person sins, all his righteousness cannot save his life.
13When I tell the righteous person that he will save his life, then if he presumes on his righteousness and does wrong, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered: but for the wrong he has done he will die.
14When I pronounce sentence of death on the wicked, then if he mends his ways and does what is just and right --
15if he restores the pledges he has taken, makes good what he has stolen, and, doing no more wrong, follows the rules that ensure life -- he will live and not die.
16None of the sins he has committed will be remembered against him; because he does what is just and right, he will live.
17“Yet your fellow-countrymen say, ‘The Lord acts without principle,’ but in fact it is their ways which are unprincipled.
18If a righteous man gives up his righteousness and does wrong, he will die because of it;
19if a wicked man gives up his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live.
20Israel, how can you say that the Lord acts without principle, when I judge each one of you according to his deeds?”
21In the twelfth year of our captivity, on the fifth day of the tenth month, a fugitive came from Jerusalem and reported that the city had fallen.
22The evening before he arrived, the hand of the LORD had come upon me, but by the time the fugitive reached me in the morning the LORD had given me back the power of speech. My speech was restored and I was no longer dumb.
23The word of the LORD came to me:
24“O man, the inhabitants of these ruins on Israel's soil say, ‘When Abraham took possession of the land he was but one man; we are many, and surely the land has been granted to us.’
25Tell them, therefore, that the Lord GOD says: You eat meat with the blood still in it, you worship idols, you shed blood; and yet you expect to possess the land!
26You resort to the sword, you commit abominations, you defile one another's wives, and yet you expect to keep possession of the land!
27Tell them that the Lord GOD says: As I live, those among the ruins will fall by the sword; those in the open country I shall give to wild beasts for food; those in dens and caves will die by pestilence.
28I shall make the land a desolate waste; her boasted might will be brought to an end, and the mountains of Israel will be an untrodden desert.
29When I make the land a desolate waste because of all the abominations they have committed, then they will know that I am the LORD.
30“O man, your fellow-countrymen gather in groups and talk of you by the walls and in doorways, saying to one another, ‘Let us go and see what message there is from the LORD.’
31So my people will come in to you, as people are wont to do. They will sit down in front of you, and hear what you have to say, but they will not act on it. ‘Fine words!’ they will say with insincerity, for their hearts are set on selfish gain.
32To them you are no more than a singer of fine songs with a lovely voice and skill as a harpist. They will listen to what you say, but none of them will act on it.
33When it comes, as come it will, they will know that there has been a prophet in their midst.”