Ezekiel

SECOND ACTIVITY OF THE PROPHET

The Prophet as Watchman

The word of the Lord came to me:

“Son of man, speak to your people and say to them: Imagine I bring a sword against a country, and the people of that country choose one among them to be their watchman.

When this man sees the sword coming to the land, he shall blow the trumpet to warn the people;

then, if anyone hears the trumpet and does not respond to the warning, he shall be responsible for his own death;

but the man who gave the warning will save his life.

On the other hand, when the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, the people are not warned, and some are killed. In that case, I will hold the watchman responsible, and he will answer for the victims’ deaths.

For your part, son of man, I have made you a watchman for Israel; when you hear my word, you must warn them.

When I say to the wicked: ‘Wicked man, you shall die for sure,’ if you do not warn the wicked man to turn from his ways, he will die because of his sin; but I will also hold you accountable for his blood.

If you warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin; but you, yourself, will be saved.

Son of man, you know what the people of Israel say: ‘We are wasting away because of our sins, and our wrongdoing is weighing us down. How can we live?’

Say to them: As I live, declares the Lord, I do not want the wicked to die, but rather, that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your wicked ways! Why, O Israel, should you die?

You, son of man, tell your people: The righteous life of the upright will not save them on the day they turn to sin; and the wicked man will not be bound to his wickedness on the day he turns from his evil ways. Similarly, the upright: he will die.

When I say to the righteous, ‘You will live,’ if he uses his righteousness to do evil, his past righteousness will be forgotten; the evil he commits will lead to his death.

If I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ but he then turns from his sin, does what is just and right,

gives back what he took as a pledge on a loan, restores what he has stolen, obeys the life-giving decrees, and avoids evil, he will live; he will not die.

His life, in sin, will no longer be held against him. He has done what is just and right, and because of that, he will live.

Yet your people say, ‘The Lord’s judgment is unfair.’ On the contrary, it is their own way that is wrong.

The person who is honest and turns away from what is just and right, and does evil, will die;

and the wicked person, who turns from evil to do what is just and right, will live!

Even though you say, ‘The Lord’s judgment is unfair,’ I will judge you, Israel, each person according to their actions.”

The Fugitive Arrives

On the fifth day of the tenth month in the eleventh year of our exile, a fugitive arrived from Jerusalem to tell me: “The city has fallen.”

Now the hand of the Lord had been on me the evening before the arrival of the fugitive. When I met him in the morning, the Lord opened my mouth. My tongue was loosened, and I was no longer silent.

In Jerusalem

The word of the Lord then came:

“Son of man, those who remain among the ruins in the land of Israel should consider: ‘Abraham was alone when he received the land as a possession; we are still many, and it has been given to us.’

But you will say to them: thus says the Lord: You eat food with blood, you look toward idols, you shed blood; and you want to possess the land!

You lean on your sword; you do what is detestable; each one dishonors his neighbor’s wife; and, yet, you want to possess the land!

Tell them: This is the word of the Lord: As I live, those who settle among the ruins will fall by the sword; those in the open country, I will give as food to the beasts; and those in strongholds and caves shall die of the plague.

I will turn the land into a wasteland, a deserted place. They will no longer rely on their strength, and the mountains of Israel will be abandoned, with no one crossing them.

Then they will realize that I am the Lord, when I turn their land into a lonely wasteland because of all the detestable things they have done.

The Love Singer

Son of man, your people talk about you along the walls and at the doors of the houses, each one with his neighbor: ‘Come and hear the latest word of the Lord.’

They come to you as if to an assembly and sit in front of you. They listen to your words but do not follow your advice. Instead, they continue to lie and only pursue their interests.

To them, you are nothing more than a singer of love songs—beautiful voice paired with beautiful music. They listen but don’t follow through with what they hear.

But when what is foretold comes true—and it is about to happen—they will realize that there was a prophet among them.