Ezekiel 33
Ezekiel’s mission: warn Israel
Ezekiel pulls guard duty
1The LORD gave me a message. He said:2Listen, human, give this message to your people here with you. Tell them:
Let’s say I send an army to attack your town, and the city assigns a lookout to watch for armies headed your way. 3And let’s say the lookout sees the army coming and blows the ram’s horn to warn the people, 4but the people ignore the warning and end up getting killed. In that case, their death is their fault. 5They heard the blast of the ram's horn. So, the death is on them. If they had taken the warning seriously, they would still be alive.
6But let's say the lookout sees the army coming and doesn’t blow the horn. And let's say the people die because of that. I am holding the lookout responsible for the deaths of those people and he's going to have to pay for it with his life. 7Human, you are the lookout. I have made you the lookout guard for Israel. Whenever you hear me talking to you and giving you a warning, you had better pass that warning along to the people.
8If I tell you to say, “You are wicked bunch of people. You are going to die,” you had better say it. You had better pass that warning along, because that warning might cause some of the people to change their way of life, and they might live because of that warning. But if you fail to give them that warning and they die in their sin, I will hold you accountable for their deaths.
9But if you warn those wicked people to change their way of living and they decide not to do it, they will die in their sins. But you will live.
“God isn’t fair”
10Human, the people of Israel say I'm punishing them too much for the sins they committed. They're asking how they can possibly continue to live like this.11Tell them this: You can’t. If you continue to live like that, you’re going to die. As surely as I'm alive, I don’t enjoy killing evil people. I want them to stop being wicked so I can let them live. So, I’m telling you people of Israel, to stop it. Stop doing what you know is wrong and start doing what you know is right. Do it so you can live.
12Human, give this message to your people:
The goodness of a good person will not save them when they turned bad. The opposite is true as well. The wickedness of wicked people will not end them if they change their lives and chase righteousness. 13Good people who turn bad shouldn’t count on their past to guarantee them a long life. Their current life trumps their past life. The wicked are going to die during this time of punishment.
14Also, tell the wicked that they're evil is going to get them killed. But if they change their way of living and start following the law and doing what they know is right, I’ll let them live through what’s coming. 15I expect to see formerly bad folks repaying their loans and returning anything they stole. They should also follow the law and avoid anything they know is wrong. If they do that, they’ll live through this. 16If they make a change in their lives like that, I won’t hold any of the sins they've committed in the past against them. If they follow the law and do what they know is right, they are going to live.
17Your people complain I don’t treat them fairly. The fact is they’re the ones who aren’t being fair. 18Here’s fairness: If good people turn wicked, they’re going to pay for it with their lives. 19And when bad people turn good and they start obeying the law and doing what they know is right, they’ll get to live.
20Still, the people say I’m not just. Listen up, you people of Israel. I’m going to judge you based on the way you live your lives.
Jerusalem has fallen
21A dozen years into our captivity in Babylon, during the winter, [1] a refugee came to me from Jerusalem with news: “The city has fallen.”22I hadn’t been able to talk. But on the evening before the messenger arrived, the LORD let me begin talking again. 23The Lord gave me this message:
24Human, people still living in the decimated cities of Israel are saying, “Abraham was just one man, given all this land. But now there are many of us. So, the land belongs to all of us.”
25Tell them the Lord God said: You break the rules that grant you the right to live on the land. You eat meat with blood in it. [2] You worship idols. You murder. And yet you think you have a right to this land? 26Instead of trusting me for your security, you trust your weapons. You commit disgusting acts. You have sex with your neighbor's wife. People, you do all these things, and you think you have a right to live in this land?
27Tell them the Lord God says this:
As surely as I am alive, those of you still living in the ruins of these cities won’t survive. You’ll fall to the sword. If you’re caught out in the open, you’ll become food for the wild animals. If you’re trapped inside fortresses or caves, disease will kill you. 28I am going to further decimate this land and its mountains. The proud people living there aren’t going to have anything to be proud of anymore. I’m going to tear it up so badly that people won't even walk through the territory. They'll go around it.
29When I’m done demolishing towns and filling the land with ruins, people will recognize that I am the Lord, and that I’m the one who did this. 30As for you, human, I want to warn you about people who come to see you and who tell you, “We’ve come to hear what the Lord has to say.”
31They might come to listen. But they don’t do what you tell them to do. They say good things about you but it's just flattery. All they have in their hearts is greed. That's why they associate themselves with you. 32To these people you’re like a singer with a musical instrument. You're making beautiful music and singing love songs to them. They hear what you say, but it's entertainment to them. They’re not going to do what you tell them to do.
33Tell them I'm going to punish them. And when I do, they'll know you’re a prophet.
Footnotes
133:21
The messenger arrived on the fifth day of the tenth month on the Jewish lunar calendar. The month was Tevet (December-January). That puts the date in the 586-585 BC winter, about six months after Babylon’s summertime dismantling of Jerusalem.
233:25
Blood in animals was devoted to God. People weren’t to eat it. Steaks and lambchops had to be cooked to well-done, not rare. See Leviticus 3:17; 7:26.
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