¹The word of Yahweh came to me, saying:

²Son of the man, speak to the children of your people and say to them: When I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from their edge and set him as a watchman for themselves,

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

⁴then whoever hears the sound of the horn and does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him, his blood will be on his head.

⁵He heard the sound of the horn and did not take warning; his blood will be on him. But he who took warning has delivered his being.

⁶But the watchman, if he sees the sword coming and does not blow the horn, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes a being from among them, that one is taken in his guilt, but his blood I will require from the hand of the watchman.

⁷And you, son of the man, I have set you as a watchman for the house of Israel; you are to hear a word from my mouth and warn them from me.

⁸When I say to the wicked, wicked one, you will surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked one from his way, that wicked one will die in his guilt, but his blood I will require from your hand.

⁹But you, if you warn the wicked one from his way to turn back from it, and he does not turn back from his way, he will die in his guilt, but you will have delivered your being.

¹⁰And you, son of the man, say to the house of Israel: Thus you have said, saying: Our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and in them we are pining away; and how can we live?

¹¹Say to them: As I live, the utterance of the Adonai Yahweh, I take no delight in the death of the wicked, but in the wicked one turning back from his way and living. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why would you die, house of Israel?

¹²And you, son of the man, say to the children of your people: The righteousness of the righteous one will not deliver him in the day of his transgression, and the wickedness of the wicked one, he will not stumble in it in the day he turns back from his wickedness; and the righteous one will not be able to live by it in the day he sins.

¹³In my saying to the righteous, Surely he will live, and he trusted over his righteousness and will make injustice, all his righteousness they will not remember, and in his injustice which he made, in it he will die.

¹⁴And when I say to the wicked one, You will surely die, and he turns back from his sin and does justice and righteousness,

¹⁵if the wicked one gives back the pledge, repays what he robbed, walks by the statutes of life, so as not to do injustice, he will surely live; he will not die.

¹⁶None of his sins that he has sinned will be remembered against him; he has done justice and righteousness; he will surely live.

¹⁷Yet the children of your people say, The way of the Lord is not balanced; but as for them, their way is not balanced.

¹⁸When the righteous one turns back from his righteousness and does injustice, he dies in them.

¹⁹And when the wicked one turns back from his wickedness and does justice and righteousness, he will live because of them.

²⁰And you say, The way of the Lord is not balanced. I will judge you, each man by his ways, house of Israel.

²¹It came about in the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, that the refugee from Jerusalem came to me, saying: The city has been struck.

²²Now the hand of Yahweh had been on me in the evening, before the refugee came, and he had opened my mouth by the time he came to me in the morning; so my mouth was opened, and I was no longer dumb.

²³The word of Yahweh came to me, saying:

²⁴Son of the man, those who dwell in these ruins on the ground of Israel are saying: Abraham was one, and he took possession of the land; and we are many; the land has been given to us as a possession.

²⁵Therefore say to them: Thus says the Adonai Yahweh: You eat with the blood, and you lift up your eyes to your idols, and you pour out blood; and will you possess the land?

²⁶You take your stand upon your sword, you have done abomination, and each man has defiled the wife of his neighbor; and will you possess the land?

²⁷Thus you are to say to them: Thus says the Adonai Yahweh: As I live, surely those who are in the ruins will fall by the sword, and whoever is on the face of the field I have given him to the living creatures to eat, and those who are in the strongholds and in the caverns will die by the pestilence.

²⁸I will make the land a desolation and a waste, and the majesty of her strength will cease, and the mountains of Israel will be desolate, with no one passing by.

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

³⁰And you, son of man—the children of your people are talking together about you beside the walls and in the doorways of the houses; and one speaks with another, each man with his brother, saying: “Come, please, and hear what the word is that comes out from Yahweh.”

³¹And they come to you as a people comes, and they sit before you as my people, and hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouths they make flatteries, while their heart goes after their gain.

³²And look, you are to them like a love song, with a beautiful voice, one who plays well; they hear your words, but they do not do them.

³³And when it comes — look, it is coming — they will know that a prophet has been in their midst.