Ezekiel 33

1-9 Ezekiel Israel’s Sentry

1-6 God to Ezekiel: If the people appoint a sentinel, and he sees a sword coming and warns the people, and people don’t heed the warning, their blood is upon their own heads. But if the sentinel doesn’t sound the warning, they will be taken away in their iniquity, but their blood is upon his head.

7-9 Mortal, I have appointed you as sentinel for Israel. You shall give them warnings from me. If you do not warn the wicked, they will die in their iniquity, but I will require their blood at your hand. If you warn them, and they refuse, they will die, but you will have saved your life.

10-20 God’s Justice and Mercy

10-16 God to Ezekiel: Tell the people who despair because of their sin that if they will turn from their evil ways, they will not die. I get no pleasure in the death of the wicked. On the other hand, the righteous cannot rely on their own righteousness to save them if they continue in sin. If the wicked turn from sin and restore what they have stolen, they shall live. I will forget their sins.

17-20 Your people say “The way of the Lord is not just,” when it is their own way that is not just. When the righteous turn from their righteousness they will die; when the wicked turn from their wickedness, they will live.

21-22 The Fall of Jerusalem

21 In the 12th year, 10th month, 5th day of the month, someone who escaped from Jerusalem came to me and told me Jerusalem has fallen. This was a year and a half after the city had been destroyed, per Jamieson, Fausset and Brown.

22 The LORD had opened my mouth the evening before, so I was able to speak when the fugitive came to me. As prophesied in 24:27:

On that day your mouth shall be opened to the one who has escaped, and you shall speak and no longer be silent. So you shall be a sign to them; and they shall know that I am the Lord.

23-33 The Survivors in Judah

23-24 God to Ezekiel: The inhabitants of the wasteland in Israel use Abraham as an example of just one man who came to possess a land, so with so many of them, they should be able to do the same thing.

25-26 But I say, How can you expect to possess a land when you participate in abominations: eating flesh with blood, worshiping idols, defiling your neighbor’s wife?

27-29 As I live, those who live in the wasteland will die by the sword, the mountains of Israel will become desolate. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.

30-31 Mortal, the people come to you and listen to you as they would an entertainer, but they don’t heed what you tell them. When this desolation comes to pass, they will know a prophet has been among them.