1And the word of the LORD came to me, saying:2Son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them: When I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and appoint him for themselves as a watcher,3and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people,4then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and 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 he who takes warning has delivered his own soul.6But if the watcher sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes a soul from them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watcher's hand.7And you, son of man, I have appointed you as a watcher for the house of Israel; you shall hear a word from my mouth and warn them from me.8When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked one, you shall surely die,' and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked one shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.9But you, if you warn the wicked to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your own soul.10And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel: Thus you have said, saying, 'Our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we are wasting away in 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 rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?'12And you, son of man, say to the sons of your people: The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him on the day of his transgression, and the wickedness of the wicked shall not cause him to stumble on the day he turns from his wickedness, and the righteous shall not be able to live by it on the day he sins.13When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, and he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous acts shall be remembered, but in the injustice that he has done, in it he shall die.14And when I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and he turns from his sin and does justice and righteousness,15if the wicked restores the pledge, repays what was taken by robbery, walks in the statutes of life without doing injustice, he shall surely live; he shall not die.16None of his sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done justice and righteousness; he shall surely live.17Yet the sons of your people say, 'The way of the Lord is not measured,' but it is their own way that is not measured.18When a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die by them.19And when a wicked man turns from his wickedness and does justice and righteousness, he shall live by them.20Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not measured.' I will judge you, each one according to his ways, O house of Israel.