1The word of the Lord came to me: 2“Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and make him their watchman, 3and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 5He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. 6But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.
7 “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 8If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 9But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.
10“And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you said: ‘Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?’ 11Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?
12 “And you, son of man, say to your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness, and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins. 13Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet if he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injustice that he has done he shall die. 14Again, though I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ yet if he turns from his sin and does what is just and right, 15if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life, not doing injustice, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 16None of the sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he shall surely live.
17“Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just,’ when it is their own way that is not just. 18When the righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it. 19And when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he shall live by this. 20Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways.”
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Not only is this passage similar to 3:16-21, but also, in 12ff to 18:21-29, with its emphasis on the law of individual responsibility, we have already seen (see Notes on ch 3) how faithfully Ezekiel fulfilled his remit as a watchman, and how actively he discharged his burden, even when the people were not at all disposed to listen to him. But we also saw that the very consistency of his message won a gradual respect among the elders of the people, so that towards the end of the first part of his ministry we see them respectfully listening to him, sitting at his feet and asking, 'Is there a word from the Lord?'. This is the reward of faithfulness; it does not come overnight, and in any given situation a man need not expect to be listened to, in an age in which godliness and righteousness are at a discount. But if he goes on preaching faithfully, sooner or later men in spite of themselves will recognize the validity and authority of his message, and will pay respect to it, however grudgingly. In 3:16-21 the commission to be a watchman was followed by a marvellous theophany, a manifestation of the glory of God, as if to assure Ezekiel that God would be with him in this lonely and exacting task. Here, however, there is no such manifestation; nor was it necessary, and for this reason: when the commission came a second time, a train of thought would surely be started up in Ezekiel's mind, and he would inevitably think of that earlier occasion, and its associations would come flooding back to him, and the sweet and precious assurances that God gave him then would come to him once more. After all, is He not the same yesterday, today, and forever?