Ezekiel:16-18
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Again the word of the LORD came to me :
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Son of man ,
make known to Jerusalem her abominations ,
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and say ,
Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem :
Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites ;
your father was an Amorite ,
and your mother a Hittite .
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And as for your birth ,
on the day you were born your navel string was not cut ,
nor were you washed with water to cleanse you ,
nor rubbed with salt ,
nor swathed with bands .
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No eye pitied you ,
to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you ;
but you were cast out on the open field ,
for you were abhorred ,
on the day that you were born .
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And when I passed by you ,
and saw you weltering in your blood ,
I said to you in your blood , `
Live ,
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and grow up like a plant of the field .'
And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full maidenhood ;
your breasts were formed ,
and your hair had grown ;
yet you were naked and bare .
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When I passed by you again and looked upon you ,
behold ,
you were at the age for love ;
and I spread my skirt over you ,
and covered your nakedness :
yea ,
I plighted my troth to you and entered into a covenant with you ,
says the Lord GOD ,
and you became mine .
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Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you ,
and anointed you with oil .
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I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with leather ,
I swathed you in fine linen and covered you with silk .
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And I decked you with ornaments ,
and put bracelets on your arms ,
and a chain on your neck .
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And I put a ring on your nose ,
and earrings in your ears ,
and a beautiful crown upon your head .
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Thus you were decked with gold and silver ;
and your raiment was of fine linen ,
and silk ,
and embroidered cloth ;
you ate fine flour and honey and oil .
You grew exceedingly beautiful ,
and came to regal estate .
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And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty ,
for it was perfect through the splendor which I had bestowed upon you ,
says the Lord GOD .
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But you trusted in your beauty ,
and played the harlot because of your renown ,
and lavished your harlotries on any passer-by .
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You took some of your garments ,
and made for yourself gaily decked shrines ,
and on them played the harlot ;
the like has never been ,
nor ever shall be .
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You also took your fair jewels of my gold and of my silver ,
which I had given you ,
and made for yourself images of men ,
and with them played the harlot ;
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and you took your embroidered garments to cover them ,
and set my oil and my incense before them .
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Also my bread which I gave you--I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey--you set before them for a pleasing odor ,
says the Lord GOD .
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And you took your sons and your daughters ,
whom you had borne to me ,
and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured .
Were your harlotries so small a matter
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that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them ?
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And in all your abominations and your harlotries you did not remember the days of your youth ,
when you were naked and bare ,
weltering in your blood .
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And after all your wickedness (
woe ,
woe to you !
says the Lord GOD ),
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you built yourself a vaulted chamber ,
and made yourself a lofty place in every square ;
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at the head of every street you built your lofty place and prostituted your beauty ,
offering yourself to any passer-by ,
and multiplying your harlotry .
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You also played the harlot with the Egyptians ,
your lustful neighbors ,
multiplying your harlotry ,
to provoke me to anger .
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Behold ,
therefore ,
I stretched out my hand against you ,
and diminished your allotted portion ,
and delivered you to the greed of your enemies ,
the daughters of the Philistines ,
who were ashamed of your lewd behavior .
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You played the harlot also with the Assyrians ,
because you were insatiable ;
yea ,
you played the harlot with them ,
and still you were not satisfied .
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You multiplied your harlotry also with the trading land of Chalde '
a ;
and even with this you were not satisfied .
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How lovesick is your heart ,
says the Lord GOD ,
seeing you did all these things ,
the deeds of a brazen harlot ;
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building your vaulted chamber at the head of every street ,
and making your lofty place in every square .
Yet you were not like a harlot ,
because you scorned hire .
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Adulterous wife ,
who receives strangers instead of her husband !
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Men give gifts to all harlots ;
but you gave your gifts to all your lovers ,
bribing them to come to you from every side for your harlotries .
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So you were different from other women in your harlotries :
none solicited you to play the harlot ;
and you gave hire ,
while no hire was given to you ;
therefore you were different .
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Wherefore ,
O harlot ,
hear the word of the LORD :
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Thus says the Lord GOD ,
Because your shame was laid bare and your nakedness uncovered in your harlotries with your lovers ,
and because of all your idols ,
and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them ,
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therefore ,
behold ,
I will gather all your lovers ,
with whom you took pleasure ,
all those you loved and all those you loathed ;
I will gather them against you from every side ,
and will uncover your nakedness to them ,
that they may see all your nakedness .
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And I will judge you as women who break wedlock and shed blood are judged ,
and bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy .
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And I will give you into the hand of your lovers ,
and they shall throw down your vaulted chamber and break down your lofty places ;
they shall strip you of your clothes and take your fair jewels ,
and leave you naked and bare .
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They shall bring up a host against you ,
and they shall stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords .
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And they shall burn your houses and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women ;
I will make you stop playing the harlot ,
and you shall also give hire no more .
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So will I satisfy my fury on you ,
and my jealousy shall depart from you ;
I will be calm ,
and will no more be angry .
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Because you have not remembered the days of your youth ,
but have enraged me with all these things ;
therefore ,
behold ,
I will requite your deeds upon your head ,
says the Lord GOD . "
Have you not committed lewdness in addition to all your abominations ?
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Behold ,
every one who uses proverbs will use this proverb about you , `
Like mother ,
like daughter .'
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You are the daughter of your mother ,
who loathed her husband and her children ;
and you are the sister of your sisters ,
who loathed their husbands and their children .
Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite .
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And your elder sister is Sama '
ria ,
who lived with her daughters to the north of you ;
and your younger sister ,
who lived to the south of you ,
is Sodom with her daughters .
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Yet you were not content to walk in their ways ,
or do according to their abominations ;
within a very little time you were more corrupt than they in all your ways .
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As I live ,
says the Lord GOD ,
your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done .
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Behold ,
this was the guilt of your sister Sodom :
she and her daughters had pride ,
surfeit of food ,
and prosperous ease ,
but did not aid the poor and needy .
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They were haughty ,
and did abominable things before me ;
therefore I removed them ,
when I saw it .
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Sama '
ria has not committed half your sins ;
you have committed more abominations than they ,
and have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations which you have committed .
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Bear your disgrace ,
you also ,
for you have made judgment favorable to your sisters ;
because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they ,
they are more in the right than you .
So be ashamed ,
you also ,
and bear your disgrace ,
for you have made your sisters appear righteous .
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I will restore their fortunes ,
both the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters ,
and the fortunes of Sama '
ria and her daughters ,
and I will restore your own fortunes in the midst of them ,
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that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all that you have done ,
becoming a consolation to them .
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As for your sisters ,
Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former estate ,
and Sama '
ria and her daughters shall return to their former estate ;
and you and your daughters shall return to your former estate .
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Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth in the day of your pride ,
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before your wickedness was uncovered ?
Now you have become like her an object of reproach for the daughters of Edom and all her neighbors ,
and for the daughters of the Philistines ,
those round about who despise you .
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You bear the penalty of your lewdness and your abominations ,
says the LORD .
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Yea ,
thus says the Lord GOD :
I will deal with you as you have done ,
who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant ,
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yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth ,
and I will establish with you an everlasting covenant .
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Then you will remember your ways ,
and be ashamed when I take your sisters ,
both your elder and your younger ,
and give them to you as daughters ,
but not on account of the covenant with you .
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I will establish my covenant with you ,
and you shall know that I am the LORD ,
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that you may remember and be confounded ,
and never open your mouth again because of your shame ,
when I forgive you all that you have done ,
says the Lord GOD ."
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The word of the LORD came to me :
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Son of man ,
propound a riddle ,
and speak an allegory to the house of Israel ;
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say ,
Thus says the Lord GOD :
A great eagle with great wings and long pinions ,
rich in plumage of many colors ,
came to Lebanon and took the top of the cedar ;
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he broke off the topmost of its young twigs and carried it to a land of trade ,
and set it in a city of merchants .
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Then he took of the seed of the land and planted it in fertile soil ;
he placed it beside abundant waters .
He set it like a willow twig ,
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and it sprouted and became a low spreading vine ,
and its branches turned toward him ,
and its roots remained where it stood .
So it became a vine ,
and brought forth branches and put forth foliage .
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But there was another great eagle with great wings and much plumage ;
and behold ,
this vine bent its roots toward him ,
and shot forth its branches toward him that he might water it .
From the bed where it was planted
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he transplanted it to good soil by abundant waters ,
that it might bring forth branches ,
and bear fruit ,
and become a noble vine .
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Say ,
Thus says the Lord GOD :
Will it thrive ?
Will he not pull up its roots and cut off its branches ,
so that all its fresh sprouting leaves wither ?
It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it from its roots .
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Behold ,
when it is transplanted ,
will it thrive ?
Will it not utterly wither when the east wind strikes it--wither away on the bed where it grew ?"
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Then the word of the LORD came to me :
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Say now to the rebellious house ,
Do you not know what these things mean ?
Tell them ,
Behold ,
the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem ,
and took her king and her princes and brought them to him to Babylon .
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And he took one of the seed royal and made a covenant with him ,
putting him under oath . (
The chief men of the land he had taken away ,
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that the kingdom might be humble and not lift itself up ,
and that by keeping his covenant it might stand .)
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But he rebelled against him by sending ambassadors to Egypt ,
that they might give him horses and a large army .
Will he succeed ?
Can a man escape who does such things ?
Can he break the covenant and yet escape ?
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As I live ,
says the Lord GOD ,
surely in the place where the king dwells who made him king ,
whose oath he despised ,
and whose covenant with him he broke ,
in Babylon he shall die .
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Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company will not help him in war ,
when mounds are cast up and siege walls built to cut off many lives .
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Because he despised the oath and broke the covenant ,
because he gave his hand and yet did all these things ,
he shall not escape .
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Therefore thus says the Lord GOD :
As I live ,
surely my oath which he despised ,
and my covenant which he broke ,
I will requite upon his head .
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I will spread my net over him ,
and he shall be taken in my snare ,
and I will bring him to Babylon and enter into judgment with him there for the treason he has committed against me .
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And all the pick of his troops shall fall by the sword ,
and the survivors shall be scattered to every wind ;
and you shall know that I ,
the LORD ,
have spoken ."
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Thus says the Lord GOD : "
I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar ,
and will set it out ;
I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one ,
and I myself will plant it upon a high and lofty mountain ;
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on the mountain height of Israel will I plant it ,
that it may bring forth boughs and bear fruit ,
and become a noble cedar ;
and under it will dwell all kinds of beasts ;
in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest .
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And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD bring low the high tree ,
and make high the low tree ,
dry up the green tree ,
and make the dry tree flourish .
I the LORD have spoken ,
and I will do it ."
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The word of the LORD came to me again :
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What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel , `
The fathers have eaten sour grapes ,
and the children '
s teeth are set on edge '?
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As I live ,
says the Lord GOD ,
this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel .
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Behold ,
all souls are mine ;
the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine :
the soul that sins shall die .
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If a man is righteous and does what is lawful and right --
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if he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel ,
does not defile his neighbor '
s wife or approach a woman in her time of impurity ,
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does not oppress any one ,
but restores to the debtor his pledge ,
commits no robbery ,
gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment ,
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does not lend at interest or take any increase ,
withholds his hand from iniquity ,
executes true justice between man and man ,
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walks in my statutes ,
and is careful to observe my ordinances--he is righteous ,
he shall surely live ,
says the Lord GOD .
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If he begets a son who is a robber ,
a shedder of blood ,
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who does none of these duties ,
but eats upon the mountains ,
defiles his neighbor '
s wife ,
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oppresses the poor and needy ,
commits robbery ,
does not restore the pledge ,
lifts up his eyes to the idols ,
commits abomination ,
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lends at interest ,
and takes increase ;
shall he then live ?
He shall not live .
He has done all these abominable things ;
he shall surely die ;
his blood shall be upon himself .
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But if this man begets a son who sees all the sins which his father has done ,
and fears ,
and does not do likewise ,
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who does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel ,
does not defile his neighbor '
s wife ,
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does not wrong any one ,
exacts no pledge ,
commits no robbery ,
but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment ,
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withholds his hand from iniquity ,
takes no interest or increase ,
observes my ordinances ,
and walks in my statutes ;
he shall not die for his father '
s iniquity ;
he shall surely live .
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As for his father ,
because he practiced extortion ,
robbed his brother ,
and did what is not good among his people ,
behold ,
he shall die for his iniquity .
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Yet you say , `
Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father ?'
When the son has done what is lawful and right ,
and has been careful to observe all my statutes ,
he shall surely live .
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The soul that sins shall die .
The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father ,
nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son ;
the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself ,
and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself .
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But if a wicked man turns away from all his sins which he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is lawful and right ,
he shall surely live ;
he shall not die .
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None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him ;
for the righteousness which he has done he shall live .
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Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked ,
says the Lord GOD ,
and not rather that he should turn from his way and live ?
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But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity and does the same abominable things that the wicked man does ,
shall he live ?
None of the righteous deeds which he has done shall be remembered ;
for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed ,
he shall die .
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Yet you say , `
The way of the Lord is not just .'
Hear now ,
O house of Israel :
Is my way not just ?
Is it not your ways that are not just ?
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When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity ,
he shall die for it ;
for the iniquity which he has committed he shall die .
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Again ,
when a wicked man turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is lawful and right ,
he shall save his life .
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Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions which he had committed ,
he shall surely live ,
he shall not die .
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Yet the house of Israel says , `
The way of the Lord is not just .'
O house of Israel ,
are my ways not just ?
Is it not your ways that are not just ?
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Therefore I will judge you ,
O house of Israel ,
every one according to his ways ,
says the Lord GOD .
Repent and turn from all your transgressions ,
lest iniquity be your ruin .
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Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed against me ,
and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit !
Why will you die ,
O house of Israel ?
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For I have no pleasure in the death of any one ,
says the Lord GOD ;
so turn ,
and live ."
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And you ,
take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel ,
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