17. “Yet the children of your people say, ‘The way of Adonai isn’t fair!’ but it is their way, theirs that is unfair.
18. When a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he will die in it.
19. When a wicked person turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live by it.
20. Yet you say, ‘The way of Adonai is not fair!’ House of Israel, I will judge every one of you according to his ways.”
21. In the twelfth year of our exile, on the fifth day of the tenth month, a survivor from Jerusalem came to me saying, “The city has been struck down.”
22. The hand of Adonai had been upon me in the evening, before the survivor came. He had opened my mouth by the time of his coming to me in the morning. So my mouth was opened and I was no longer mute.
23. Then the word of Adonai came to me saying:
24. “Son of man, the inhabitants of these ruins in the land of Israel keep saying, ‘Abraham was only one, yet he inherited the land. Since we are many, the land is given to us as a possession.’