10. “You, son of man, tell the house of Israel: ‘You say this, “Our transgressions and our sins are on us, and we pine away in them. How then can we live?”’
11. Tell them, ‘“As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why will you die, house of Israel?”’
12. “You, son of man, tell the children of your people, ‘The righteousness of the righteous will not deliver him in the day of his disobedience. And as for the wickedness of the wicked, he will not fall thereby in the day that he turns from his wickedness; neither will he who is righteous be able to live by it in the day that he sins.
13. When I tell the righteous that he will surely live; if he trusts in his righteousness, and commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; but he will die in his iniquity that he has committed.
14. Again, when I say to the wicked, “You will surely die;” if he turns from his sin, and does that which is lawful and right;
15. if the wicked restore the pledge, give again that which he had taken by robbery, walk in the statutes of life, committing no iniquity; he will surely live. He will not die.
16. None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has done that which is lawful and right. He will surely live.
17. “‘Yet the children of your people say, “The way of the Lord is not fair;” but as for them, their way is not fair.
18. When the righteous turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, he will even die therein.
19. When the wicked turns from his wickedness, and does that which is lawful and right, he will live thereby.
20. Yet you say, “The way of the Lord is not fair.” House of Israel, I will judge every one of you after his ways.’”
21. In the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, one who had escaped out of Jerusalem came to me, saying, “The city has been defeated!”
22. Now the Lord’s hand had been on me in the evening, before he who had escaped came; and he had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no longer mute.
23. the Lord’s word came to me, saying,
24. “Son of man, those who inhabit the waste places in Eretz-Israel speak, saying, ‘Abraham was one, and he inherited the land; but we are many. The land is given us for inheritance.’
25. Therefore tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “You eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood. So should you possess the land?