17. “But your people say: ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ But it is their own way that is not fair.
18. The good person might turn from his goodness and do evil. Then he will die for his evil.
19. But the wicked person might stop doing evil and do what is right and fair. Then he will live.
20. You still say: ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ Israel, I will judge each of you by his own ways.”
21. It happened in the twelfth year of our captivity. It was on the fifth day of the tenth month. A person who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me. He said, “Jerusalem has been defeated.”
22. Now I had felt the power of the Lord on me the evening before. The Lord had made me able to talk again. He did this before the person came to me in the morning. I could speak. I was not without speech anymore.