“This is the law of the temple: The entire area on top of the mountain all around will be most holy. Indeed, this is the law of the temple.

One commits an abominable act with his neighbor’s wife; another obscenely defiles his daughter-in-law; another violates his sister – his father’s daughter – within you.

“‘In a controversy they will act as judges; they will judge according to my ordinances. They will keep my laws and my statutes regarding all my appointed festivals and will observe my Sabbaths.

Her priests abuse my law and have desecrated my holy things. They do not distinguish between the holy and the profane, or recognize any distinction between the unclean and the clean. They ignore my Sabbaths and I am profaned in their midst.

The Lord said to me: “Son of man, pay attention, watch closely and listen carefully to everything I tell you concerning all the statutes of the Lord’s house and all its laws. Pay attention to the entrances to the temple with all the exits of the sanctuary.

When they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple, its pattern, its exits and entrances, and its whole design – all its statutes, its entire design, and all its laws; write it all down in their sight, so that they may observe its entire design and all its statutes and do them.

They will attack you with weapons, chariots, wagons, and with a huge army; they will array themselves against you on every side with large shields, small shields, and helmets. I will assign them the task of judgment; they will punish you according to their laws.

“Suppose a man is righteous. He practices what is just and right,

When the wicked turns from his sin and does what is just and right, he will live because of it.

Disaster after disaster will come, and one rumor after another. They will seek a vision from a prophet; priestly instruction will disappear, along with counsel from the elders.

When a wicked person turns from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will preserve his life.

Suppose I say to the wicked, ‘You must certainly die,’ but he turns from his sin and does what is just and right.

None of the sins he has committed will be counted against him. He has done what is just and right; he will certainly live.

“Yet you say, ‘Why should the son not suffer for his father’s iniquity?’ When the son does what is just and right, and observes all my statutes and carries them out, he will surely live.

“But if the wicked person turns from all the sin he has committed and observes all my statutes and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die.

and follows my statutes and observes my regulations by carrying them out. That man is righteous; he will certainly live, declares the sovereign Lord.

I gave them my statutes and revealed my regulations to them. The one who carries them out will live by them!

I am the Lord your God; follow my statutes, observe my regulations, and carry them out.

I also gave them decrees which were not good and regulations by which they could not live.

I will put my Spirit within you; I will take the initiative and you will obey my statutes and carefully observe my regulations.