Ezekiel 33:15-25

15 if they give back what they took in pledge for a loan, return what they have stolen, follow the decrees that give life, and do no evil—that person will surely live; they will not die.
16 None of the sins that person has committed will be remembered against them. They have done what is just and right; they will surely live.
17 “Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But it is their way that is not just.
18 If a righteous person turns from their righteousness and does evil, they will die for it.
19 And if a wicked person turns away from their wickedness and does what is just and right, they will live by doing so.
20 Yet you Israelites say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But I will judge each of you according to your own ways.”

Jerusalem’s Fall Explained

21 In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month on the fifth day, a man who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city has fallen!”
22 Now the evening before the man arrived, the hand of the LORD was on me, and he opened my mouth before the man came to me in the morning. So my mouth was opened and I was no longer silent.
23 Then the word of the LORD came to me:
24 “Son of man, the people living in those ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land. But we are many; surely the land has been given to us as our possession.’
25 Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Since you eat meat with the blood still in it and look to your idols and shed blood, should you then possess the land?

Ezekiel 33:15-25 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 33

This chapter treats of the prophet's duty, and the people's sins; contains a vindication of the justice of God; a threatening of destruction to those who remained in the land after the taking of the city; and a detection of the hypocrisy of the prophet's hearers. The duty of a watchman in general is declared, Eze 33:1-6, an application of this to the prophet, Eze 33:7: the sum of whose business is to warn the wicked man of his wickedness; and the consequence of doing, or not doing it, is expressed, Eze 33:8,9, an objection of the people, and the prophet's answer to it, Eze 33:10,11, who is bid to acquaint them, that a righteous man trusting to his righteousness, and sinning, should not live; and that a sinner repenting of his sins should not die, Eze 33:12-16, the people's charge of inequality in the ways of God is retorted upon them, and removed from the Lord, and proved against them, Eze 33:17-20, then follows a prophecy, delivered out after the news was brought of the taking of the city, threatening with ruin those that remained in the land, confident of safety, and that for their sins, which are particularly enumerated, Eze 33:21-29, and the chapter is closed with a discovery of the hypocrisy of those that attended the prophet's ministry, Eze 33:30-33.

Cross References 20

  • 1. S Exodus 22:26
  • 2. Exodus 22:1-4; S Leviticus 6:2-5
  • 3. Isaiah 55:7; Jeremiah 18:7-8; Ezekiel 20:11; S Luke 19:8
  • 4. S Jeremiah 50:20
  • 5. S Isaiah 43:25; Ezekiel 18:22
  • 6. Jeremiah 18:10
  • 7. S Ezekiel 3:20; Ezekiel 18:26
  • 8. S ver 14-15
  • 9. S Job 34:11
  • 10. Ezekiel 24:26
  • 11. S 2 Kings 25:4,10; Jeremiah 39:1-2; Jeremiah 52:4-7; S Ezekiel 32:1
  • 12. S Ezekiel 1:3
  • 13. Ezekiel 29:21; Luke 1:64
  • 14. Ezekiel 3:26-27; S Ezekiel 24:27
  • 15. Ezekiel 36:4
  • 16. S Deuteronomy 1:10
  • 17. Isaiah 51:2; Jeremiah 40:7; Ezekiel 11:15; Luke 3:8; Acts 7:5
  • 18. Jeremiah 7:21
  • 19. S Genesis 9:4; Deuteronomy 12:16
  • 20. Jeremiah 7:9-10; S Ezekiel 22:6,27
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