does not engage in usury or charge interest,<n id="1" /> but refrains<n id="2" /> from wrongdoing, promotes true justice<n id="3" /> between men,

and follows my statutes and observes my regulations by carrying them out.<n id="1" /> That man<n id="2" /> is righteous; he will certainly live,<n id="3" /> declares the sovereign <sc>Lordsc>.p>

(though the father did not do any of them).<n id="1" /> He eats pagan sacrifices on the mountains,<n id="2" /> defiles his neighbor&#8217;s wife,

oppresses the poor and the needy,<n id="1" /> commits robbery, does not give back what was given in pledge, prays to<n id="2" /> idols, performs abominable acts,

engages in usury and charges interest. Will he live? He will not! Because he has done all these abominable deeds he will certainly die.<n id="1" /> He will bear the responsibility for his own death.<n id="2" />p>

refrains from wrongdoing,<n id="1" /> does not engage in usury or charge interest, carries out my regulations and follows my statutes. He will not die for his father&#8217;s iniquity;<n id="2" /> he will surely live.

As for his father, because he practices extortion, robs his brother, and does what is not good among his people, he will die for his iniquity.p>

Throw away all your sins you have committed and fashion yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!<n id="1" /> Why should you die, O house of Israel?

I acted for the sake of my reputation,<n id="1" /> so that I would not be profaned before the nations among whom they lived,<n id="2" /> before whom I revealed myself by bringing them out of the land of Egypt.<n id="3" />p>

I gave them my statutes<n id="1" /> and revealed my regulations to them. The one<n id="2" /> who carries<n id="3" /> them out will live by them!<n id="4" />

But I refrained from doing so,<n id="1" /> 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 did this<n id="1" /> because they did not observe my regulations, they rejected my statutes, they desecrated my Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on<n id="2" /> their fathers&#8217; idols.

And there you will remember your conduct<n id="1" /> and all your deeds by which you defiled yourselves. You will despise yourselves<n id="2" /> because of all the evil deeds you have done.

Then you will know that I am the <sc>Lordsc>, when I deal with you for the sake of my reputation and not according to your wicked conduct and corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the sovereign <sc>Lordsc>.&#8217;&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">So hearts melt with fear and many stumble.p> <p class="poetry">At all their gates I have stationed the sword for slaughter.p> <p class="poetry">Ah! It is made to flash, it is drawn for slaughter!p>

Then say, &#8216;This is what the sovereign <sc>Lordsc> says: O city, who spills blood within herself (which brings on her doom),<n id="1" /> and who makes herself idols (which results in impurity),

Slanderous men shed blood within you.<n id="1" /> Those who live within you eat pagan sacrifices on the mountains;<n id="2" /> they commit obscene acts among you.<n id="3" />

One<n id="1" /> commits an abominable act with his neighbor&#8217;s wife; another obscenely defiles his daughter-in-law; another violates<n id="2" /> his sister &#8211; his father&#8217;s daughter<n id="3" /> &#8211; within you.

She did not abandon the prostitution she had practiced in Egypt; for in her youth men had sex with her, fondled her virgin breasts, and ravished her.<n id="1" />

They exposed her nakedness, seized her sons and daughters, and killed her with the sword. She became notorious<n id="1" /> among women, and they executed judgments against her.p>