1. And the word of יהוה came to me, saying,
2. “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and you shall say to them, ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land shall take a man from their borders and shall make him their watchman,
3. and he sees the sword coming upon the land, and shall blow the ram’s horn and shall warn the people,
4. then whoever shall hear the sound of the ram’s horn and shall not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood is on his own head.
5. ‘He heard the sound of the ram’s horn, but he did not take warning, his blood is on himself. But he who takes warning shall deliver his being.
6. ‘But if the watchman sees the sword coming and shall not blow the ram’s horn, and the people shall not be warned, and the sword comes and takes any being from among them, he is taken away in his crookedness, and his blood I require at the watchman’s hand.’
7. “And you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Yisra’ĕl. And you shall hear a word from My mouth and you shall warn them for Me.
8. “When I say to the wrong, ‘O wrong one, you shall certainly die!’ and you have not spoken to warn the wrong from his way, that wrong one shall die in his crookedness, and his blood I require at your hand.
9. “But when you have warnedthe wrong to turn from his way, and he has not turned from his way, he shall die in his crookedness, but you have delivered your being.
10. “And you, O son of man, say to the house of Yisra’ĕl, ‘This is what you have said, “If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we pine away in them, how then shall we live?” ’
11. “Say to them, ‘As I live,’ declares the Master יהוה, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wrong, but that the wrong turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Yisra’ĕl?’
12. “And you, O son of man, say to the children of your people, ‘The righteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression. And as for the wrongness of the wrong, he shall not stumble because of it in the day that he turns from his wrong. And the righteous shall not be able to live because of his righteousness in the day that he sins.’