14. Again, when I have said to the wicked, You shall surely die, if he turns from his sin and does that which is lawful and right–
15. If the wicked restores [what he took in] pledge, gives back what he had taken in robbery, walks in the statutes of life [right relationship with God], without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die.
16. None of his sins that he has committed shall be [seriously] remembered against him; he has done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.
17. Yet your people say, The way of the Lord is not perfect or even just; but as for them, it is their own way that is not perfect or even just.
18. When the righteous turns back from his [uncompromising] righteousness and commits perverseness and iniquity, he shall even die in and because of it.
19. But if the wicked turns back from his wickedness and does what is lawful and right, he shall live because of it.
20. Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not perfect or [even] just. O you house of Israel, I will judge you, every one according to his own ways!
21. In the twelfth year of our captivity [in Babylon], in the tenth [month], on the fifth [day] of the month, a man who had escaped out of Jerusalem came to me [Ezekiel], saying, The city [Jerusalem] is taken.