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Individual Responsibility

10 The Lord spoke to me. “Mortal man,” he said, “repeat to the Israelites what they are saying: ‘We are burdened with our sins and the wrongs we have done. We are wasting away. How can we live?’ 11 Tell them that as surely as I, the Sovereign Lord, am the living God, I do not enjoy seeing sinners die. I would rather see them stop sinning and live. Israel, stop the evil you are doing. Why do you want to die?

12 “Now, mortal man, tell the Israelites that when someone good sins, the good he has done will not save him. If an evil person stops doing evil, he won't be punished, and if a good man starts sinning, his life will not be spared.

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10 “Therefore you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: ‘Thus you say, “If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we (A)pine[a] away in them, (B)how can we then live?” ’ 11 Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, (C)‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked (D)turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For (E)why should you die, O house of Israel?’

The Fairness of God’s Judgment

12 “Therefore you, O son of man, say to the children of your people: ‘The (F)righteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; as for the wickedness of the wicked, (G)he shall not fall because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness; nor shall the righteous be able to live because of his righteousness in the day that he sins.’

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 33:10 Or waste away