1And the word of LORD JEHOVAH was upon me, saying 2“Son of man, speak with the children of your people, and say to them: when I bring a sword upon the land, the people of the land shall bring one man of them, and they shall make him a Watchman for them 3And whenever he sees the sword that is coming upon them, he shall sound on a trumpet, and he shall warn the people 4And whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not pay attention, and the sword comes, he himself shall bear his blood on his head 5And if he pays attention, he saves his life 6But whenever the Watchman sees the sword coming and he does not sound on the trumpet, and he does not warn the people, and the sword has come and it took a life from them, this life was taken by his sins, and I shall require its blood from the hands of the Watchman

7But you, son of man, I have given you as a Watchman to the house of Israel, so that you will hear the word from my mouth, and you shall warn them from me 8When I have said to the evil "You shall surely die”, and you have not spoken to the evil that he would be warned from his way that is evil, he shall die in his evil, and his blood I shall require from your hands 9But if you have warned the evil one to return from his way, and he did not return, he shall die in his evil, and you have saved your soul

10But you, son of man, say to the house of Israel: thus you have said, ‘Our evil and our sins are upon us, and we waste away in them! How are we living?’ 11Say to them: ‘I am living, says THE LORD OF LORDS. I take no pleasure in the death of the evil, but that the evil would turn from his evil, and he would live. Return and be converted from your evil ways, and you shall not die, those of the house of Israel!’ 12But you, son of man, say to the children of your people: ‘The righteousness of the righteous one does not save him in the day that he sins, and the evil one does not stumble in his evil in the day that he is turned from his evil, and the righteous one does not live in the day that he sins 13When I have said to the righteous one that he shall surely live, and he trusts on his righteousness, and after that he does evil, all his righteousness that he did shall not be remembered for him, but he shall die in the evil that he did 14And when I say to the evil, ‘You shall certainly die’, and he shall turn from his sins and he will do justice and righteousness 15And the tent that he has taken he shall return, and for the thing that he stole he shall pay, and he shall walk in the commandments of life, and he shall not do evil, he shall certainly live, and he shall not die 16And all the sins that he did shall not be remembered against him, but in the justice and in the righteousness that he did, he shall live

17And the children of your people were saying: ‘The way of LORD JEHOVAH is not right!’ It is their ways that are not right 18And when the righteous will turn from his righteousness and he will do evil, in his evil he shall die 19And when the evil one will return from his evil and he will do justice and righteousness, by them he shall live 20And you were saying, ‘The way of LORD JEHOVAH is not right.’ I shall judge you, each man, according to his ways, house of Israel

21In the eleventh year, in the fifth day of the tenth month of our captivity, one who was saved from Jerusalem came to me, and he said to me: "The city is exterminated!" 22And before he who was saved had come to me, the hand of LORD JEHOVAH was upon me in the evening, and he opened my mouth until he who was saved came to me at dawn, and when my mouth was opened again, it was not shut

23And the word of LORD JEHOVAH was upon me, saying: 24“Son of man, those who dwell in these ruins of the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham, who was one, inherited the land. Why are we who are many not inheriting it?’ 25Because of this, say to them, ‘Thus says THE LORD OF LORDS: because you eat blood and you lift up your eyes to your idols and drink blood, do you also seek to inherit the land? 26You live by your swords and you practice abomination, and each man of you defiles the wife of his neighbor, and do you seek to inherit the land?’ 27Say to them, ‘Thus says THE LORD OF LORDS: I am alive! All who are in the ruins shall fall by the sword, and all who are in the fields I shall give as food for the animals, and all who are in the chasms and in caves shall die in the plague 28And I shall make the land a desolation and an astonishment, and the praise of its strength shall cease from it, and the mountains of Israel shall be a waste without a passerby 29And they shall know that I AM LORD JEHOVAH, whenever I have made the land a desolation and astonishment, because of all the abominations that they have done’

30But you, son of man, the children of your people are plotting against you by the side of the wall, and at the doors of the houses, and they speak one to one, a man with his brother, and they say: ‘Hear what word went out from before LORD JEHOVAH’ 31And the people are coming to you and are sitting before you and hearing your words, and they do not do them, because a lie is in their mouths, and it is after the mind of their heart they are going 32And you are considered by them as a song and like a beautiful voice and like a sweet harp, and they hear your words, and they do not act on them 33But when your words have happened, then they shall know that you are a Prophet among them”