Ezekiel 33:7-20

7“Now as for you, son of man, I have 12appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a 3message from My mouth and give them 4warning from Me. 8When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will 5surely die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. 9But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he 6does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have 7delivered your life.

10“Now as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus you have spoken, saying, “Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we are 8rotting away in them; 9how then can we 10survive?”’ 11Say to them, ‘11As I live!’ declares the Lord 12God, ‘I take 13no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked 14turn from his way and live. 15Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’ 12And you, son of man, say to 16your fellow citizens, ‘The 17righteousness of a righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he will 18not stumble because of it in the day when he turns from his wickedness; whereas a righteous man will not be able to live 19by his righteousness on the day when he commits sin.’ 13When I say to the righteous he will surely live, and he so trusts in his righteousness that he 20commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; but in that same iniquity of his which he has committed he will die. 14But when I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and he 21turns from his sin and practices 22justice and righteousness, 15if a wicked man restores a pledge, 23pays back what he has taken by robbery, walks by the 24statutes 25which ensure life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 1626None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has practiced justice and righteousness; he shall surely live.

17“Yet 27your fellow citizens say, ‘The way of the Lord is not right,’ when it is their own way that is not right. 18When the righteous turns from his righteousness and 28commits iniquity, then he shall die in 29it. 19But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and practices justice and righteousness, he will live by them. 20Yet you say, ‘30The way of the Lord is not right.’ O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways.”