engages in usury and charges interest. Will he live? He will not! Because he has done all these abominable deeds he will certainly die. He will bear the responsibility for his own death.

“But suppose he in turn has a son who notices all the sins his father commits, considers them, and does not follow his father’s example.

He does not eat pagan sacrifices on the mountains, does not pray to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife,

“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.

Throw away all your sins you have committed and fashion yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why should you die, O house of Israel?

In the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month, some of the elders of Israel came to seek the Lord, and they sat down in front of me.

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

I also gave them my Sabbaths as a reminder of our relationship, so that they would know that I, the Lord, sanctify them.

But I refrained from doing so, and acted instead for the sake of my reputation, so that I would not be profaned before the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

I also swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them throughout the lands.

Just as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, declares the sovereign Lord.

Then you will know that I am the Lord when I bring you to the land of Israel, to the land I swore to give to your fathers.

And there you will remember your conduct and all your deeds by which you defiled yourselves. You will despise yourselves because of all the evil deeds you have done.

Mark out the routes for the sword to take: “Rabbah of the Ammonites” and “Judah with Jerusalem in it.”

“Son of man, say to her: ‘You are a land that receives no rain or showers in the day of my anger.’

When she lustfully exposed her nakedness, I was disgusted with her, just as I had been disgusted with her sister.

“Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because you have forgotten me and completely disregarded me, you must bear now the punishment for your obscene conduct and prostitution.”

For they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and their sons, whom they bore to me, they have passed through the fire as food to their idols.

On the same day they slaughtered their sons for their idols, they came to my sanctuary to desecrate it. This is what they have done in the middle of my house.

You mix uncleanness with obscene conduct. I tried to cleanse you, but you are not clean. You will not be cleansed from your uncleanness until I have exhausted my anger on you.