The prophet – watchman of the people
1 ① The word of Yahweh came to me in these terms, 2“Son of man, speak to your people and say to them: Imagine that I bring the sword against a country, and the people of that country choose one among them to be their sentry. 3When this man sees the sword approach the land, he shall sound the trumpet to warn the people; 4then if any one hears the trumpet and does not heed the warning he shall be responsible for his own death, 5but the man who gave the warning will save his life. 6On the other hand when the sentry sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, the people are not warned and some are killed. In that case I will hold the sentry responsible and he will answer for the victims’ death.
7For your part, son of man, I have set you as a watchman for Israel, and when you hear my word, you must give them my warning. 8When I say to the wicked: ‘Wicked man, you shall die for sure,’ if you do not warn the wicked man to turn from his ways, he will die because of his sin, but I will also call you to account for his blood. 9If you warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you yourself will be saved.
10Son of man, you know the people of Israel say: ‘We are wasting away because of our sin, and our wrongdoing is weighing us down. How can we live?’ 11Say to them: As I live, word of Yahweh, I do not want the wicked to die but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! turn from your wicked ways! Why, O Israel, should you die?
12You, son of man, say to your people: The righteous life of the upright will not save him on the day he turns to sin and the wicked man will not be bound to his wickedness on the day he turns from his evil ways; likewise for the upright: he will die. 13When I have said to the righteous: ‘You will live,’ if he takes advantage of his righteousness to do evil, his former up right life will not be remembered; the evil he is doing will make him die. 14And if I say to the wicked man, ‘You will certainly die,’ but he then turns from his sin and does what is just and right, 15gives back what he took as a pledge on a loan, restores what he has stolen, obeys the decrees that are life-giving and avoids evil, he will live, he will not die. 16His life in sin will no longer be held against him. He has done what is just and right and because of that he will live.
17Yet your people say, ‘The position of the Lord is not just.’ On the contrary it is theirs that is wrong. 18The upright man who turns from what is just and right and does evil, shall die; 19and the wicked man who turns from evil to do what is just and right shall live! 20Though you say: ‘The Lord’s position is wrong,’ I will judge you, Israel, each one according to his ways.”
21On the fifth day of the tenth month in the eleventh year of our exile, a fugitive arrived from Jerusalem to tell me: “The city has fallen.”
22Now the hand of Yahweh had been on me the evening before the arrival of the fugitive. When I met him in the morning, Yahweh opened my mouth. My tongue was loosened and no longer was I silent.
23The word of Yahweh then came to me in these terms, 24“Son of man, those who remain among the ruins in the land of Israel reckon: ‘Abraham was alone when he received the land as a possession; we are still numerous enough and it is to us that the country has been given.’
25But you will say to them: thus says Yahweh: You eat food with blood, you look towards idols, you shed blood, and you want to possess the land! 26You lean on your sword, you do what is detestable, each one dishonors his neighbor’s wife and yet you want to possess the land!
27Say to them: This is the word of Yahweh: As I live, those who settled among the ruins will fall by the sword; those in the open country I will give as food to the beasts and those in strongholds and caves shall die of the plague. 28I will make the country a wasteland, a lonely place. They will no longer lean on their power and the mountains of Israel shall be deserted with no one crossing them. 29Then they will know that I am Yahweh when I make their country a lonely waste because of all the detestable things they have done.
30Son of man, your people talk about you along the walls and at the doors of the houses, each one with his neighbor: ‘Come and hear the latest word of Yahweh.’
31They go to you as they go to an assembly and sit in front of you. They listen to your words but do not do what you say. Instead they continue to lie and look only for their own interest. 32For them you are no more than a singer of lovesongs – a beautiful voice accompanied by beautiful music. They listen but do not practice what they hear.
33But when what is foretold comes true – and it is about to happen – they will know that there was a prophet among them.”
- Ezk 33,1 Jerusalem has been captured. While all the illusions of the Jews and their false prophets are shattered, Ezekiel understands that they have come to the end of the trial. In the future, perhaps remote, there is the glimpse of a resurrection. The prophet reveals many promises of God in chapters 34-39. This chapter (33), marking the capture of Jerusalem, serves as an introduction. In 33:1-20 we have a different version of what we commented on in 3:17 and 18:21. 33:11. In time of misfortune, the wicked lose all hope; but the prophet, who always announced misery, raises his voice to encourage conversion and to share God's thinking: I do not want the wicked to die ... O, people of Israel, why should you die?
