33:1–11 The chapter begins with a reprise of the image of the prophet as a watchman guarding the city. This is how the prophet’s words of judgment began in chapter 3, but the oracles are not identical. In chapter 3 the primary message was a personal warning for Ezekiel to take seriously the responsibility laid upon him: to declare faithfully the words of judgment and to warn the people so that they could flee from the wrath to come (3:17–21). Certainly, that element of prophetic responsibility remains, and in a sense the oracle may be seen as the prophet’s recommission for his task. Yet, whereas in chapter 3 the message was directed to the prophet (cf. 3:16), here in chapter 33 it is directed to his fellow exiles (33:2, 7). It is clear that the situation being described is no longer hypothetical (“If I bring the sword upon a land”; v. 2). This is precisely what has happened to Jerusalem and Judah. Nor is the behavior of the watchman hypothetical (“If he . . . blows the trumpet . . . if . . . he does not blow the trumpet”; vv. 3, 6). The people can testify that Ezekiel has been sounding the trumpet with all his might. The only question regards the behavior of the people: Will they heed his warning and turn and live? Or will they ignore the sound of the trumpet and persist in their wickedness and die (v. 5)?

It might seem that the answer to these questions has already been given in the earlier chapters of the book. The people have indeed persisted in their wickedness, ignoring the prophet’s message and remaining flint-foreheaded against him (cf. 3:8). They know that a prophet has been in their midst (cf. 2:5), and yet they have chosen to stifle and ignore the sound of the trumpet. Could there still be hope of life for such a rebellious people?

Clearly, some among the exiles are ready to despair. They are finally opening their hearts to the possibility that the prophet’s words are true and that they are under the Lord’s judgment for their many sins. The evidence is clear: Jerusalem has been destroyed, and the exiles are rotting away in Babylon. How could they hope to live (33:10)—not merely physically, but in a vital relationship with their God, who has justly judged them?

To these people Ezekiel delivers a message of hope rooted in the gracious character of God. The prophet does not challenge in the least the people’s evaluation of themselves as wicked and therefore under the Lord’s just condemnation. Far from it—his response is calibrated on the basis that they are genuinely wicked (v. 11). Nevertheless, their God is not a god who takes pleasure in condemning the wicked to death, even though that sentence might be just (v. 11). Rather, he is a God who is in the business of redeeming wicked people, if they will only repent and turn from their wicked ways. Why should Israel continue to follow the course that leads to death when the pathway to life is wide open to them? All they need to do to choose life is turn to the Lord.

33:12–20 The prophet illustrates his appeal to his despondent fellow exiles with two case studies, reminiscent of chapter 18. In the first a righteous person “repents” of his righteousness, turning from it to a life of wickedness (33:13). In this case his former righteousness in which he trusts will not save him; his final wickedness sets him on the trajectory of death, not life (v. 13). In the second case, however, a person who turns from his wickedness and lives a life of demonstrable righteousness, keeping the “statutes of life” (v. 15), the terms of the covenant, shall surely live and not die. This standard is a requirement not of perfect righteousness but of covenantal faithfulness, of the kind that marked out someone like Abraham (cf. Gen. 26:5). The point is that judgment and salvation are not independent of a person’s behavior. People’s hearts reveal themselves in the course of their lives, not merely in a one-time decision (cf. James 2:14–26).

The prophet’s interest, however, is not primarily in the first case study, which may seem to raise theological questions about whether someone can “lose his salvation.” Doubtless, Ezekiel would agree with James that living faith is always demonstrated in our actions, not mere words (James 2:14–18)—actions that ultimately flow from the work of the Spirit in our hearts. Ezekiel’s principal interest here is in the second case, regarding whether repentance and salvation are possible even for those who have lived a life heading in entirely the opposite direction. His answer is a definitive yes.

If people persist in pursuing death, the issue is not God’s justice but their own lack of justice (Ezek. 33:17–20). On the last day no one will be able to claim that his or her condemnation is undeserved. What is undeserved—and yet, remarkably, true—is that the wicked person who repents and turns to God may yet live (v. 19). To adopt an image from the prophet Isaiah, the Lord stands with his hands open wide all day long to his rebellious people (Isa. 65:2). The only question is whether the Israelites will remain on their calamitous course of rebellion or repent and turn back to the Lord, so that they may live.

33:21–22 The question of whether Israel will turn and live provides the context for the arrival of the news of Jerusalem’s fall to King Nebuchadnezzar. The news arrived on the fifth day of the tenth month in the twelfth year of exile (Ezek. 33:21), almost eighteen months after the city fell. The time left for Jerusalem’s repentance has run out, and the Lord has indeed judged her for her ways (cf. 7:3). Yet at the same time the arrival of the news of her fall transforms Ezekiel’s life in a positive direction: his speech is no longer confined to words of the Lord’s judgment (cf. 3:26–27). The dumbness that has marked out Ezekiel since the beginning of his work as a prophet is removed. Will the exiles’ lives similarly be transformed by this definitive validation of the prophet’s longstanding words of judgment?

33:23–29 Sadly, it rapidly becomes clear that the answer is no. Both those who remain in the land (vv. 23–29) and the exiles (vv. 30–33) still appear committed to their former ways. The remaining inhabitants of Judah may be living in “waste places,” the ruins left behind by the Babylonian devastation, yet they exhibit an ironic sense of self-confidence. Appealing to Abraham as their example, they see unlimited possibilities ahead: if a solitary figure such as Abraham could receive possession of the land originally, what could stop the “many” who remain after the destruction from receiving the land (v. 24)? Yet they forget the one who promised to give that land to Abraham in the first place and the condition required for Abraham to receive it—faith! As Isaiah makes clear, the call of Abraham could legitimately provide comfort and hope for the rebuilding of Israel (Isa. 51:2–3), but only for those who emulate the faith of their famous forefather.

In reality, those who remain in the land of Judah are in the situation described in the first case study, earlier in the chapter (Ezek. 33:12–13). They appeal to the former righteousness of Abraham while themselves living in various forms of wickedness. They eat meat with the lifeblood still in it—forbidden in the Pentateuch (Deut. 12:23)—pursuing their various idols and shedding innocent blood (Ezek. 33:25). They rely on the sword, committing abominations (Hb. toʿebot, a word that indicates particularly serious sins; e.g., Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Deut. 7:26) and pursuing affairs with their neighbor’s wives (Ezek. 33:26). Those who live their lives in such flagrant breaches of the covenant cannot expect to inherit the blessings of the covenant. On the contrary, they will continue to inherit the covenant curses of the sword, wild animals, and plague (v. 27; cf. Lev. 26:22, 25). The Lord—the one who gave the land to Abraham in the first place—will make his land a desolate ruin because of all their abominations (Ezek. 33:28).

It is not that the Lord is unable or unwilling to transform the wasteland into a land of blessing. Indeed, he promises to do just that in 36:33–36. But he will do so for the sake of his own name after he transforms the people from a nation that proudly persists in its disobedience to a repentant community that loves to obey the Lord (36:25–29).

33:30–33 But if the judgment of the Lord continues to be poured out on those who remain in Judah, what about the exiles? Surely they will be transformed by the prophet’s message into a community ready to receive a different future? Unfortunately not. To be sure, Ezekiel’s preaching is suddenly the talk of the town (vv. 30–31). Everybody wants to hear the prophet speak, which is good. Yet hearing is all they want to do: “They hear what you say but they will not do it” (v. 31). As with a popular song that people sing mindlessly because it has a catchy tune, the people are eager to listen to Ezekiel’s performance but—again—“They hear what you say, but they will not do it” (v. 32). Their hearts are set on the things of this world—“gain” (v. 31)—and their mouths are full of lustful speech, which reveals the state of their hearts (cf. Matt. 12:34). Yet, just as the fall of Jerusalem has vindicated the prophet’s words, so the continued devastation of those who remain in Judah will further confirm the folly of those who neglect Ezekiel’s preaching. One day they will become aware of the fact that a prophet has been among them (Ezek. 33:33), a watchman who has been faithfully crying out his message of warning to repent and flee from the wrath to come (cf. vv. 2–9). On that day they will have only themselves to blame for their death.