12. “And you, son of man, say to your people, ‘The righteousness of the righteous will not deliver him if he rebels. As for the wicked, his wickedness will not make him stumble if he turns from it. The righteous will not be able to live by his righteousness if he sins.’
13. Suppose I tell the righteous that he will certainly live, but he becomes confident in his righteousness and commits iniquity. None of his righteous deeds will be remembered; because of the iniquity he has committed he will die.
14. Suppose I say to the wicked, ‘You must certainly die,’ but he turns from his sin and does what is just and right.
15. He returns what was taken in pledge, pays back what he has stolen, and follows the statutes that give life, committing no iniquity. He will certainly live – he will not die.
16. None of the sins he has committed will be counted against him. He has done what is just and right; he will certainly live.
17. “Yet your people say, ‘The behavior of the Lord is not right,’ when it is their behavior that is not right.
18. When a righteous man turns from his godliness and commits iniquity, he will die for it.
19. When the wicked turns from his sin and does what is just and right, he will live because of it.
20. Yet you say, ‘The behavior of the Lord is not right.’ House of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his behavior.”
21. In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth of the month, a refugee came to me from Jerusalem saying, “The city has been defeated!”
22. Now the hand of the Lord had been on me the evening before the refugee reached me, but the Lord opened my mouth by the time the refugee arrived in the morning; he opened my mouth and I was no longer unable to speak.
23. The word of the Lord came to me:
24. “Son of man, the ones living in these ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land, but we are many; surely the land has been given to us for a possession.’
25. Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: You eat the meat with the blood still in it, pray to your idols, and shed blood. Do you really think you will possess the land?