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.’