10. You, therefore, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: You have spoken in this way, saying: 'Our iniquities and our sins are upon us, and we waste away in them. So then, how would we be able to live?'
11. Say to them: As I live, says the Lord God, I do not desire the death of the impious, but that the impious should convert from his way and live. Be converted, be converted from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?
12. And as for you then, son of man, say to the sons of your people: The justice of the just man will not deliver him, on whatever day he will have sinned. And the impiety of the impius man will not harm him, on whatever day he will have been converted from his impiety. And the just man will not be able to live by his justice, on whatever day he will have sinned.
13. Even now, if I say to the just man that he shall certainly live, and so, with confidence in his justice, he commits iniquity, all his justices will be delivered into oblivion, and by his iniquity, which he has done, by this he shall die.
14. And if I say to the impious man, 'You shall certainly die,' and yet he repents from his sin, and he does judgment and justice,
15. and if that impious man returns the collateral, and repays what he has taken by force, and if he walks in the commandments of life, and does not do anything unjust, then he shall certainly live, and he shall not die.
16. None of his sins, which he has committed, will be imputed to him. He has done judgment and justice, so he shall certainly live.
17. And the sons of your people have said, 'The way of the Lord is not a fair balance,' even while their own way is unjust.
18. For when the just man will have withdraw from his justice, and committed iniquities, he shall die by these.
19. And when the impious man will have withdrawn from his impiety, and have done judgment and justice, he shall live by these.
20. And yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not right.' But I shall judge each one of you according to his own ways, O house of Israel."