²⁵ You could not possibly do such a thing: to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. You could not possibly do that! Won’t the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”^(A)

¹⁸ If I say to the wicked person,^(A) ‘You will surely die,’ but you do not warn him—you don’t speak out to warn him about his wicked way in order to save his life—that wicked person will die for his iniquity. Yet I will hold you responsible for his blood. ¹⁹ But if you warn a wicked person and he does not turn from his wickedness or his wicked way, he will die for his iniquity, but you will have saved your life.^(B)

²⁰ The person who sins is the one who will die.^(A) A son won’t suffer punishment for the father’s iniquity, and a father won’t suffer punishment for the son’s iniquity.^(B) The righteousness of the righteous person will be on him,^(C) and the wickedness of the wicked person will be on him.^(D)

²¹ “Now if the wicked person turns from all the sins he has committed,^(E) keeps all My statutes, and does what is just and right, he will certainly live; he will not die. ²² None of the transgressions he has committed will be held against him.^(F) He will live because of the righteousness he has practiced.^{(G) 23} Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked?”^(H) This is the declaration of the Lord God. “Instead, don’t I take pleasure when he turns from his ways and lives? ²⁴ But when a righteous person turns from his righteousness^(I) and practices iniquity, committing the same detestable acts that the wicked do, will he live? None of the righteous acts he did will be remembered.^(J) He will die because of the treachery he has engaged in and the sin he has committed.

⁸ If I say to the wicked, ‘Wicked one, you will surely die,’^(A) but you do not speak out to warn him about his way, that wicked person will die for his iniquity, yet I will hold you responsible for his blood. ⁹ But if you warn a wicked person to turn from his way and he doesn’t turn from it, he will die for his iniquity, but you will have saved your life.

¹⁰ “Now as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel: You have said this, ‘Our transgressions and our sins are heavy on us, and we are wasting away because of them!^(B) How then can we survive?’^{(C) 11} Tell them: As I live”—the declaration of the Lord God—“I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked person should turn from his way and live.^(D) Repent, repent of your evil ways! Why will you die, house of Israel?

¹² “Now, son of man, say to your people: The righteousness of the righteous person will not save him on the day of his transgression; neither will the wickedness of the wicked person cause him to stumble on the day he turns from his wickedness. The righteous person won’t be able to survive by his righteousness on the day he sins. ¹³ When I tell the righteous person that he will surely live, but he trusts in his righteousness and commits iniquity, then none of his righteousness will be remembered, and he will die because of the iniquity he has committed.^(E)

¹⁴ “So when I tell the wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ but he repents of his sin and does what is just and right— ¹⁵ he returns collateral, makes restitution for what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life^(F) without practicing iniquity—he will certainly live; he will not die.