15. For example, they need to return anything they have taken as security for a loan and anything they have stolen. Then if they stop doing evil and start obeying my Law, they will live.
16. Their past sins will be forgiven, and they will live because they have done right.
17. Ezekiel, your people accuse me of being unfair. But they are the ones who are unfair.
18. If good people start doing evil, they will be put to death, because they have sinned.
19. And if wicked people stop sinning and start doing right, they will save themselves from punishment.
20. But the Israelites still think I am unfair. So warn them that they will be punished for what they have done.
21. Twelve years after King Jehoiachin and the rest of us had been led away as prisoners to Babylonia, a refugee who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me on the fifth day of the tenth month. He told me that the city had fallen.
22. The evening before this man arrived at my house, the Lord had taken control of me. So when the man came to me the next morning, I could once again speak.
23. Then the Lord said:
24. Ezekiel, son of man, the people living in the ruined cities of Israel are saying, “Abraham was just one man, and the Lord gave him this whole land of Israel. There are many of us, and so this land must be ours.”
25. So, Ezekiel, tell them I am saying:How can you think the land is still yours? You eat meat with blood in it and worship idols. You commit murder
26. and spread violence throughout the land. Everything you do is wicked; you are even unfaithful in marriage. And you claim the land is yours!