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| 1 And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, |
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| 2 Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them all, and set him for their watchman: |
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| 3 if he see the sword coming upon the land, and blow the trumpet, and warn the people; |
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| 4 then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning, if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. |
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| 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood is upon him: whereas had he taken warning, he would have delivered his soul. |
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| 6 But if the watchman see the sword coming, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned, if the sword come and take a person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand. |
The watchman – When the foundations of all our faith are assailed, we lay aside mildness and cry aloud so as at once to arouse all Israel to the danger of the hour. R425:6, R431:6
Be not warned – It is our duty to warn against selfishness, our most imminent danger--our greatest enemy. R548:3
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| 7 So thou, son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; and thou shalt hear the word from my mouth, and warn them from me. |
O son of man – Applying to any steward of the Lord. R1558:6
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| 8 When I say unto the wicked, Wicked man, thou shalt certainly die; and thou speakest not to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thy hand. |
If thou dost not speak – There can be no compromise of truth, no mixing of it with human philosophies to make it more palatable or to avoid any measure of otherwise inevitable persecution. R1558:6
His blood will I require – "I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." (Acts 20:26, 27) R1558:6
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| 9 But if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul. |
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| 10 And thou, son of man, say unto the house of Israel, Thus ye speak, saying, Our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we waste away in them, how then should we live? |
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| 11 Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? |
Say unto them – The world of mankind in the incoming age. R2613:3
I have no pleasure – "The Lord is not willing that any should perish." (2 Pet. 3:9) R1449:6*
Not that he does not "will" the death of the sinner, for it is his will that the "soul that sinneth, it shall die." R1449:6*
Death of the wicked – Second Death. R904:3
In mercy God will blot such out of existence. R605:5, R3083:5
Only when they absolutely refuse to be rightly exercised by the discipline of the Lord will he administer the final punishment which forever blots them out of existence. R904:3
This will be the last unpleasant duty of the Creator. R1834:1
The destruction of the incorrigible will be in demonstration of God's unceasing hatred of sin. R1782:1, R1273:5
Turn ye – If men in this life repent of sin and continue the work of reformation to the best of their ability, they will reap the benefit of so doing in the age to come. R722:5, R2613:3
Why will ye die – "See, I have set before thee this day life and death." (Deut. 30:19) R401:1*
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| 12 And thou, son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live thereby in the day that he sinneth. |
His transgression – If he sin wilfully, his past good deeds shall not be remembered. R5781:2
That he turneth – The evildoer, coming to God with full repentance, is forgiven and received into God's family. R5781:2
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| 13 When I say to the righteous that he shall certainly live, and he trusteth to his righteousness and doeth what is wrong, none of his righteous acts shall be remembered; but in his unrighteousness which he hath done, in it shall he die. |
Not be remembered – The crown of life is promised to those who shall prove themselves faithful, even until death. R1699:6
He shall die for it – There is a possibility of failure in the Millennial age. R401:2*
If one should make a covenant with God and then fail to keep that covenant he would lose his covenant relationship with God as soon as he abrogated the contract. Q288:5
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| 14 And when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt certainly die, and he turneth from his sin, and doeth judgment and justice; |
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| 15 if the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had taken by robbery, walk in the statutes of life, doing nothing that is wrong; he shall certainly live, he shall not die. |
If the wicked restore – Godly sorrow for the wrong, turning from the wrong, and then, as far as possible, making the wrong right--that is repentance. R747:6*
Shall surely live – This principle applies at the present time to those who pass from death unto life as New Creatures; but it especially applies to the Millennial age. R4971:2; Q288:5
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| 16 None of his sins which he hath committed shall be remembered against him: he hath done judgment and justice; he shall certainly live. |
Shall be mentioned – His past evil is entirely ignored, except as it may bear its fruit in certain weaknesses of mind and body. R5781:2
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| 17 Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal. |
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| 18 When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and doeth what is wrong, then he shall die therein. |
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| 19 And when the wicked turneth from his wickedness, and doeth judgment and justice, he shall live for these things. |
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| 20 Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, I will judge you every one after his ways. |
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| 21 And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, on the fifth of the month, that one who had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten! |
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| 22 Now the hand of Jehovah had been upon me in the evening, before he that had escaped came; and he had opened my mouth against his coming to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb. |
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| 23 And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, |
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| 24 Son of man, they that inhabit those waste places in the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited this land, and we are many: the land is given us for a possession. |
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| 25 Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood; and shall ye possess the land? |
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| 26 Ye stand upon your sword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbour's wife; and shall ye possess the land? |
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| 27 Say thou thus unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: As I live, verily they that are in the waste places shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that are in the strongholds and in the caves shall die of the pestilence. |
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| 28 And I will make the land a desolation and an astonishment, and the pride of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolated, so that none shall pass through. |
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| 29 And they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have made the land a desolation and an astonishment because of all their abominations which they have committed. |
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| 30 And as for thee, son of man, the children of thy people keep talking of thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from Jehovah. |
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| 31 And they come unto thee as a people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they do them not; for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their dishonest gain. |
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| 32 And behold, thou art unto them as a lovely song, a pleasant voice, and one that playeth well on an instrument; and they hear thy words, but they do them not. |
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| 33 And when this cometh to pass (behold, it will come), then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them. |
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