Ezekiel 33:10-20 - Why Will You Die, Israel?
10 Son of man, say to the house of Israel: 'You people have said: Our transgressions and our sins are upon us. We are rotting away in them. How can we survive?' 11 Say to them: 'As I am alive! Declares the Lord Jehovah. I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Only that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back! Turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?'
12 Son of man, tell the Israelites that when someone good sins, the good he has done will not save him. If an evil person stops doing evil he will not be punished, and if a good man starts sinning, his life will not be spared. 13 I may promise life to someone good, but if he starts thinking that his past goodness is enough and begins to sin, I will not remember any of the good he did. He will die because of his sins.
14 I may warn someone evil that he is going to die, but if he stops sinning and does what is right and good, 15 and if he returns the security he took for a loan or gives back what he stole, if he stops sinning and follows the laws that give life, he will not die, but he will live. 16 None of the sins that he has done will be remembered. He has done what is fair and right. He will certainly live.'
17 But your people say: 'Jehovah's way is not right.' Yet, their ways are not right. 18 If the righteous person turns from the right things that he has done and does evil, he will die because of it. 19 If the wicked person turns from his wickedness and does what is fair and right, he will live because of it. 20 The people of Israel say: 'Jehovah's way is not right.' I will judge each of you by your own ways, people of Israel.