CHAPTER 18
1And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2“What is wrong with you, who recite this proverb on the soil of Israel, saying:
and the sons’ teeth were blunted.
3By My life, said the Master, the LORD, there shall be none reciting this proverb in Israel. 4Look, all lives are Mine, the life of the father and the son alike are Mine. The person offending, it is he shall die. 5And should a man be righteous and do what is just and right, 6he did not eat on the mountains nor lift his eyes to Israel’s foul things, and he did not defile his fellow man’s wife nor was intimate with a menstrual woman. 7And no man did he wrong; what is pawned in debt he returned; he did not rob; his bread he gave to the hungry and the naked he covered with clothes. 8He did not lend with advance interest nor accrued interest. He pulled his hand back from wrongdoing; he enacted true justice between one man and another. 9By My statutes he walked, and My laws he kept to act in truth. He is righteous, he shall surely live, said the Master, the LORD. 10And should he beget a brutish son, who sheds blood, and who does none of these things, 11and he did none of these things but ate on the mountains and defiled his fellow man’s wife, 12wronged the poor and the needy, robbed, did not return what was pawned and to the foul things lifted his eyes—abomination he did. 13He lent with advance interest and took accrued interest. He surely shall not live—all these abominations he did. He is doomed to die, his bloodguilt is upon him. 14And look, should he beget a son who sees all the offenses of his father, sees and does not do the like, 15on the mountains he does not eat nor does he lift his eyes to the abominations of the house of Israel. He does not defile his fellow man’s wife, 16nor does he wrong any man. He takes nothing in pawn, nor does he rob. His bread he gives to the hungry, and the naked he covers with garments. 17He draws his hand back from harming the poor, neither advance interest nor accrued interest does he take. He performs My laws, in My statutes he walks. He shall not die for his father’s crime—he shall surely live. 18As for his father, should he have committed fraud, robbed a brother, and what was not good should have done among his people, look, he shall die for his crime. 19And should you say, ‘Why does the son not bear the crime of the father?’ When the son has done justice and righteousness and kept My statutes and performed them, he shall surely live. 20The offending person, it is he who shall die. The son shall not bear the father’s crime, and the father shall not bear the son’s crime. The righteousness of the righteous man shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked man shall be on him. 21And the wicked man who turns back from all his offenses that he did and keeps all My statutes and does justice and righteousness, he shall surely live, he shall not die. 22All his wrongs that he did shall not be recalled against him. Through his righteousness that he has done he shall live. 23Do I really desire the death of the wicked, said the Master, the LORD, and not instead his turning back from his ways, that he may live? 24And when the righteous man turns back from his righteousness and does wrong like all the abominations that the wicked man did, will he do this and live? All his righteousness that he did shall not be recalled for him when he betrays and in his offense that he commits. For them he shall die. 25And should you say, ‘The way of the Master does not measure up,’ listen, pray, house of Israel. Does My way not measure up? Why, your way does not measure up! 26When the righteous man turns back from his righteousness and does wrong, he shall die for it. For his wrong that he has done he shall die. 27And when the wicked man turns back from his wickedness that he has done and does justice and righteousness, he shall preserve himself in life. 28And if he sees and turns back from all his trespasses that he committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. 29And should the house of Israel say, ‘The way of the Master does not measure up,’ do My ways not measure up? Why, it is your ways that do not measure up! 30Therefore each according to his ways will I judge you, O house of Israel, said the Master, the LORD. Turn back altogether from your trespasses, and they shall not be a stumbling block of crime for you. 31Fling away from you all your trespasses that you have committed and make you a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel? 32For I do not desire anyone’s death, said the Master, the LORD, but turn back and live.”