King James Version

1 And the word of the LORD came to me, saying. 2 Son of man, speak to the children of your people and say to them, "The land, because I will bring a sword upon it, and the people of the land will take one man from their borders and give him to them for a watchman." 3 And he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people. 4 And if the one who hears the sound of the horn does not take warning, then the sword comes and takes him away; his blood will be upon his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the shofar and did not take heed; his blood shall be upon him, and he is responsible for his life. 6 And if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes away a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand. 7 And you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; and you shall hear a word from my mouth and warn them from me. 8 When I say to the wicked, "Wicked one, you shall die," and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked one shall die in his iniquity, and his blood I will require at your hand. 9 And you, because you have warned the wicked from his way to turn back from it, and he did not turn back from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have saved your soul. 10 And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel: “Indeed, you have said, ‘Our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we waste away in them; how then can we live?’” 11 Say to them, "As I live," says the Lord God, "I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from their way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways; why should you die, O house of Israel?" 12 And you, son of man, say to the children of your people, the righteousness of the righteous shall not save him in the day of his transgression, and the wickedness of the wicked shall not cause him to stumble in the day of his turning from his wickedness, and the righteous shall not be able to live by it in the day of his sin. 13 When I say to the righteous, "He shall surely live," and he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, and in his injustice that he has done, he shall die. 14 And when I say to the wicked, "You shall surely die," and he turns from his sin and does justice and righteousness. 15 The wicked will repay what he has taken by robbery; according to the statutes of life he shall walk, and not do iniquity; he shall live; he shall not die. 16 All sin and my sins that I have sinned will not be remembered; he who has done justice and righteousness, he shall live. 17 And the sons of your people will say, "The way of the Lord is not right," and they are the ones whose way is not right. 18 When the righteous turns from his righteousness and does wrong, he will die because of it. 19 And when a wicked person turns from his wickedness and does justice and righteousness, he shall live because of it. 20 And you shall say, "The way of the Lord is not right; as for my ways, I will judge you, O house of Israel." 21 And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the fifth month, of our exile, that a fugitive came to me from Jerusalem, saying, "The city has been struck down." 22 And the hand of the LORD was upon me in the evening before the arrival of the fugitive, and I opened my mouth until he came to me in the morning, and my mouth was opened, and I was no longer mute. 23 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying. 24 Son of man, those who dwell in these ruins on the land of Israel say, “Abraham was one, and he inherited the land, and we are many; the land shall be given to us as a heritage.” 25 Therefore say to them, "Thus says my Lord Yahweh: 'You eat the blood, and your eyes look to your idols, and you pour out blood, and the land you shall inherit.'" 26 You have stood on your sword, you have committed an abomination, and you have defiled your neighbor's wife, and the land you will inherit. 27 Thus you shall say to them: Thus says my Lord Yahweh: As I live, if not, those who fall by the sword shall fall, and whoever is on the face of the field, I have given to the beasts to eat, and those in the strongholds and in the caves shall die by pestilence. 28 And I will make the land desolate and waste, and the pride of her strength shall cease, and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, with no passerby. 29 And they will know that I am the Lord when I make the land desolate and a waste because of all their abominations that they have done. 30 And you, son of man, speak to the sons of your people who are speaking about you by the walls and at the entrances of the houses, and say to one man, to his brother, ‘Come now and hear what the word is that comes from the LORD.’ 31 And they will come to you like the coming of a people, and your people will sit before you, and they will hear your words, and they will not do them, for smooth talk is in their mouths; they do according to their own desires. 32 And behold, you are to them like a beautiful song with a pleasant voice and a skilled musician, and they will hear your words but they will not do them. 33 And in her coming, behold, she has arrived, and they will know that a prophet has been among them.