Ezekiel 18:21-28
Chapter 18
None of the sins he has committedwill be held against him; he will live as a result of his righteous actions.
Do I take pleasure in the death of the sinner?—word of the Lord. Do I rather want him to turn from his ways and live?
But if the righteous man turns away from what is good and commits sins like the wicked do, will he live? His righteous deeds will no longer be credited to him;instead, he will die because of his infidelity and sins.
But you say: The Lord’s way is not just! Why, Israel! Is my judgment wrong? Or is it rather that yours is wrong?
If a righteous man turns from his righteous deeds and sins, he will die because of his sins.
And if the wicked man does what is good and right after turning from the sins he committed, he will save his life.
He will live and not die because he has opened his eyes and turned from the sins he had committed.
Commentaries
Personal Responsibility.
Here we have one of the most important messages in this book, which is summarized more briefly in 14:12-14 and 33:10. The proverb that Ezekiel rejects expresses a reality: the generation of exiles is suffering the consequences of the mistakes and sins of previous generations. For Ezekiel’s contemporaries, this certainty justified a certain fatalism and a feeling of defeat regarding their current situation. They equated God’s justice with that of humans, being used to the punishment of the father’s sins through the massacre of all his family (cf. 2 Sm 21:4-6).
Now that they are far from their homeland and no longer observing the worship of the Lord, there is no remedy. Ezekiel speaks of a just God who considers people’s actions and gives everyone what they deserve. He emphasizes the possibility of repentance and receiving blessings from God that were lost through past actions; God only desires to give life, as long as they return to his Covenant.