Ezekiel 33

Again the word of the LORD came to me. He said:

1Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

NoteLORD printed in capitals stands for the personal name of God (the four Hebrew letters YHWH), which Jewish readers avoided pronouncing aloud and replaced with the word for 'Lord'. Where the text reads 'Lord GOD' (verse 11 and after), the Hebrew has two words, roughly 'Sovereign LORD'.

2"Son of man, speak to your own people. Tell them: Suppose I bring war against a land, and the people of that land choose one man from among themselves and make him their watchman.

2Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman:

Note'Son of man' translates a Hebrew phrase meaning simply 'human being, mortal'. It is how God addresses Ezekiel throughout this book, more than ninety times, and it marks the distance between the speaker and the man spoken to. It is not a title. (A 'watchman' was a sentry posted on the city wall or in a tower, whose one job was to scan the horizon and raise the alarm; in open country a town's survival could depend on how early he saw dust on the road.) 'The sword' here stands for war generally, as we might say 'the gun'.

3He sees the enemy army coming against the land, and he blows the horn to warn the people.

3If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;

NoteThe horn is the shofar, a ram's horn. Its note carried for miles and was the standard alarm and signal instrument; hearing it, farmers in the fields would run for the walls.

4Then if anyone hears the sound of the horn but pays no attention to the warning, and the enemy comes and kills him, his death is his own fault.

4Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.

Note'His blood shall be upon his own head' is courtroom language from Israelite law, assigning legal liability for a death. It answers the question 'who is answerable for this killing?', here, the dead man himself.

5He heard the sound of the horn and paid no attention to the warning, so his death is his own fault. Anyone who does pay attention to the warning will save his life.

5He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.

6But suppose the watchman sees the enemy coming and does not blow the horn, so the people are not warned. If the enemy comes and kills someone among them, that person is taken away because of his own sin, but I will hold the watchman responsible for his death.

6But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.

Note'I will require his blood at the watchman's hand' is the same legal idiom turned the other way: the watchman is held answerable for the death, as a person could be held answerable for a killing he caused by negligence.

7"So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel. You are to listen to the word I speak, and warn them for me.

7So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.

8When I say to a wicked person, 'You wicked one, you will surely die,' and you do not speak up to warn him to leave his way, that wicked person will die because of his sin, but I will hold you responsible for his death.

8When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

9But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from his way, and he does not turn from it, he will die because of his sin, but you will have saved your own life.

9Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

10"Now, son of man, speak to the people of Israel. This is what you are saying: 'The wrongs we have done and our sins weigh on us. We are wasting away because of them. How can we go on living?'

10Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?

11Say to them: As surely as I live, says the Lord GOD, I take no pleasure in the death of a wicked person. I would rather he turn from his way and live. Turn back! Turn back from your evil ways! Why should you die, people of Israel?

11Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

Note'As surely as I live' is an oath formula, the strongest form of promise in Hebrew, in which the speaker stakes his own existence on the truth of what follows. Kings and ordinary people swore this way too.

12"So, son of man, say to your own people: The good record of a righteous person will not save him on the day he does wrong. And a wicked person's past wickedness will not bring him down on the day he turns from it. A righteous person cannot stay alive by his past goodness on the day he sins.

12Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth.

13Suppose I tell a righteous person that he will surely live, but then he trusts in his own goodness and does wrong. None of his good deeds will be remembered. He will die because of the wrong he has done.

13When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

14And suppose I tell a wicked person, 'You will surely die,' but then he turns from his sin and does what is fair and right.

14Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right;

15He gives back the item he was holding as security for a loan. He returns what he stole. He follows the rules that lead to life, and he does no wrong. Then he will surely live. He will not die.

15If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.

NoteA pledge was an object a lender held as security until a debt was paid, typically a cloak, a millstone, or a working tool, since the poor had little else. Israelite law restricted the practice: a cloak taken in pledge had to be handed back before nightfall, because the borrower slept in it.

16None of the sins he has committed will be held against him. He has done what is fair and right, so he will surely live.

16None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.

17"Yet your people say, 'The Lord's way is not fair.' But it is their own way that is not fair.

17Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.

18When a righteous person turns away from doing right and does wrong, he will die because of it.

18When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby.

19But when a wicked person turns from his wickedness and does what is fair and right, he will live because of it.

19But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.

20Yet you say, 'The Lord's way is not fair.' People of Israel, I will judge each one of you by the way he lives."

20Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O ye house of Israel, I will judge you every one after his ways.

21In the twelfth year of our exile, on the fifth day of the tenth month, a man who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said, "The city has fallen."

21And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten.

NoteThe dating runs from the deportation of 597 BC, when the Babylonians took King Jehoiachin and a body of leading citizens, Ezekiel among them, from Jerusalem to Babylonia. 'The twelfth year of our exile, tenth month, fifth day' is roughly January of 585 BC. The news concerns the second and final Babylonian assault, in which Jerusalem was captured and burned (586 BC); the messenger had crossed something like eight hundred miles of road to reach the exile community.

22The evening before that man arrived, the hand of the LORD had come on me, and he had opened my mouth. By the time the man reached me in the morning, my mouth was open, and I was no longer unable to speak.

22Now the hand of the LORD was upon me in the evening, afore he that was escaped came; and had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb.

Note'The hand of the LORD was upon me' is Ezekiel's regular phrase for the overpowering seizure in which prophetic messages came to him. The muteness refers back to earlier in the book (chapters 3 and 24), where Ezekiel was told he would be unable to speak except when God gave him words, and that this would last until word came that the city had fallen.

23Then the word of the LORD came to me. He said:

23Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

24"Son of man, the people living in the ruined places in the land of Israel are saying, 'Abraham was only one man, and he was given this whole land to own. There are many of us, so surely the land has been given to us to own.'

24Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.

NoteThe 'ruined places' are Judah after the Babylonian destruction; a poor remnant of the population had been left behind on the land while the wealthier and skilled were deported. Their argument turns on Abraham, to whom God promised the whole land when he was a single childless immigrant in it, so, they reason, a numerous population has a stronger claim still.

25So tell them: This is what the Lord GOD says. You eat meat with the blood still in it. You look to your idols. You murder people. Should the land then be yours?

25Wherefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood: and shall ye possess the land?

NoteIsraelite law forbade eating meat with the blood still in it; blood had to be drained out, because life was held to reside in it. 'Lift up your eyes to' an idol is a set phrase for looking to it in worship, the way a petitioner looks up at a king.

26You depend on your swords. You do things that are detestable. Each of you defiles the wife of the man next door. Should the land then be yours?

26Ye stand upon your sword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbour’s wife: and shall ye possess the land?

Note'You stand upon your sword' is obscure in Hebrew; it is usually taken as relying on armed force, though it may picture men standing with sword in hand. 'Detestable' translates a Hebrew word for what is repugnant and out of bounds, used above all of idol worship and the practices that went with it.

27Say this to them: This is what the Lord GOD says. As surely as I live, those who are living in the ruins will be killed by the sword. Those out in the open country I will give to wild animals to eat. Those in the strongholds and the caves will die of disease.

27Say thou thus unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; As I live, surely they that are in the wastes shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that be in the forts and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.

NoteSword, wild animals and plague form a standard trio of disasters in prophetic warnings, the three ways a person dies when a country's order collapses. Depopulated land really did revert to predators.

28I will make the land an empty waste. The strength she was so proud of will come to an end. The mountains of Israel will be so empty that no one will travel through them.

28For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through.

29Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I have made the land an empty waste because of all the detestable things they have done.

29Then shall they know that I am the LORD, when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed.

30"As for you, son of man, your people are talking about you beside the walls and in the doorways of their houses. They say to one another, each to his brother, 'Come on, let's go hear what message has come from the LORD.'

30Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the LORD.

NoteThe stretch of ground beside the city wall and the doorways of houses were where people stood about and talked; these were the ordinary gossip spots of a town. The Hebrew can mean either talking about you or talking against you.

31They come to you the way crowds come. They sit down in front of you as my people, and they listen to your words, but they will not do them. With their mouths they say loving things, but their hearts chase after dishonest gain.

31And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.

32To them you are like someone singing a love song with a lovely voice, who plays an instrument well. They hear your words, but they do not do them.

32And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.

NoteThe Hebrew phrase is literally 'a song of loves', a love song, entertainment, the kind of thing a skilled singer performed for an audience that enjoyed it and then went home.

33And when all this happens (and it will happen) then they will know that a prophet has been among them."

33And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them.