33:12 “And you, son of man, say to your people, 1 ‘The righteousness of the righteous will not deliver him if he rebels. 2 As for the wicked, his wickedness will not make him stumble if he turns from it. 3 The righteous will not be able to live by his righteousness 4 if he sins.’ 5 33:13 Suppose I tell the righteous that he will certainly live, but he becomes confident in his righteousness and commits iniquity. None of his righteous deeds will be remembered; because of the iniquity he has committed he will die. 33:14 Suppose I say to the wicked, ‘You must certainly die,’ but he turns from his sin and does what is just and right. 33:15 He 6 returns what was taken in pledge, pays back what he has stolen, and follows the statutes that give life, 7 committing no iniquity. He will certainly live – he will not die. 33:16 None of the sins he has committed will be counted 8 against him. He has done what is just and right; he will certainly live.
33:17 “Yet your people 9 say, ‘The behavior 10 of the Lord is not right,’ 11 when it is their behavior that is not right. 33:18 When a righteous man turns from his godliness and commits iniquity, he will die for it. 33:19 When the wicked turns from his sin and does what is just and right, he will live because of it. 33:20 Yet you say, ‘The behavior of the Lord is not right.’ House of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his behavior.” 12
1 tn Heb “the sons of your people.”
2 tn Heb “in the day of his rebellion.” The statement envisions a godly person rejecting what is good and becoming sinful. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:247-48.
3 tn Heb “and the wickedness of the wicked, he will not stumble in it in the day of his turning from his wickedness.”
4 tn Heb “by it.”
5 tn Heb “in the day of his sin.”
6 tn Heb “the wicked one.”
7 tn Heb “and in the statutes of life he walks.”
8 tn Heb “remembered.”
9 tn Heb “the sons of your people.”
10 tn Heb “way.”
11 tn The Hebrew verb translated “is (not) right” has the basic meaning of “to measure.” For a similar concept, see Ezek 18:25, 29.
12 tn Heb “ways.”