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And the Word of Yahuah came to me, saying:
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“Son of Adam, speak to the sons of your people and say to them: ‘When I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one ish from among them and appoint him as their watchman,
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and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the shofar and warns the people,
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then whoever hears the sound of the shofar and does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away— his blood shall be upon his own head.
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He heard the sound of the shofar and did not take warning. His blood shall be upon himself. But the one who takes warning shall deliver his being.
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But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the shofar, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes a being from among them— he is taken away in his crookedness, but his blood I will seek from the hand of the watchman.’
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And you, son of Adam, I have appointed you a watchman for the House of Yisra’el. And you shall hear a Word from My mouth and warn them from Me.
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When I say to the wicked: ‘Wicked one, dying, you shall surely die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked one shall die in his crookedness, but his blood I will seek from your hand.
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But if you warn the wicked from his way, to turn from it, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his crookedness, but you shall have delivered your being.
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And you, son of Adam, say to the House of Yisra’el: ‘Thus you have spoken, saying: “Our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and in them we are wasting away. How then shall we live?”’
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Say to them: ‘Living am I,’ declares Adonai Yahuah, ‘I do not delight in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Return! Return from your evil ways! For why should you die, House of Yisra’el?’
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And you, son of Adam, say to the sons of your people: ‘The Righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression. And as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not stumble by it in the day he turns from his wickedness. And the righteous shall not be able to live by his Righteousness in the day he sins.
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When I say to the righteous: “Living, you shall surely live,” and he trusts in his Righteousness and does crookedness, all his righteous deeds shall not be remembered, but for his crookedness that he has done, for it he shall die.
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And when I say to the wicked: “Dying, you shall surely die,” and he turns from his sin and does Judgment and Righteousness—
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if the wicked returns the pledge, restores what he robbed, walks in the statutes of life without doing crookedness— living, he shall surely live. He shall not die.
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None of his sins that he committed shall be remembered against him. He has done Judgment and Righteousness. Living, he shall surely live.
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Yet the sons of your people say: “The way of Adonai is not measured rightly.” But it is their way that is not measured rightly.
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When the righteous turns from his Righteousness and does crookedness, he shall die because of it.
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And when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does Judgment and Righteousness, by them he shall live.
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Yet you say: “The way of Adonai is not measured rightly.” Each ish according to his ways I will judge you, House of Yisra’el.’”
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And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, that one who had escaped from Yerushalayim came to me, saying: “The city has been struck.”
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And the hand of Yahuah had been upon me in the evening before the escaped one came. And He had opened my mouth before he came to me in the morning. And my mouth was opened, and I was no longer mute.
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And the Word of Yahuah came to me, saying:
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“Son of Adam, those dwelling in these ruins upon the land of Yisra’el are saying: ‘Avraham was one, and he possessed the land. But we are many; the land has been given to us as a possession.’
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Therefore say to them: ‘Thus says Adonai Yahuah: You eat with the blood, and lift your eyes to your idols, and shed blood— and shall you possess the land?
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You stand upon your sword, you do abomination, and each ish defiles the ishah of his companion— and shall you possess the land?’
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Thus you shall say to them: ‘Thus says Adonai Yahuah: Living am I, those who are in the ruins shall fall by the sword, and the one who is upon the face of the field I will give to the beasts to be eaten, and those who are in the strongholds and in the caves shall die by pestilence.
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And I will make the land a desolation and an astonishment, and the pride of her strength shall cease. And the mountains of Yisra’el shall become desolate, with none passing through.
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And they shall know that I am Yahuah when I make the land a desolation and an astonishment because of all their abominations that they have done.’
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And you, son of Adam, the sons of your people are speaking concerning you beside the walls and at the entrances of the houses. And one speaks with another, each ish with his brother, saying: ‘Come, please, and hear what the Word is that comes forth from Yahuah.’
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And they come to you as the people come, and My people sit before your face and hear your Words, but they do not do them. For with their mouth they make desires, and their heart walks after their unjust gain.
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And see, you are to them like a song of loves, beautiful of voice and skillful in playing. And they hear your Words, but they do not do them.
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And when it comes— see, it comes— then they shall know that a prophet has been in their midst.”