1   And the word of our Lord was made to me, saying:

2   Sonne of man, speake to the children of thy people, and thou shalt say to them: The land when I shal bring the sword in vpon it, and the people of the land take a man, one of their meanest, & make him ^note a watchman ouer them:

3   and he shal see the sword coming vpon the land, and sound with the trumpet, & tel the people:

4   and he that heareth the sound of the trumpet, whosoeuer he be, and doth not looke to himselfe, and the sword come, and take him: his bloud shal be vpon his head.

5   He heard the sound of the trumpet, and did not looke to himself, his bloud shal be on himself: but if he shal looke to himself, he shal saue his life.

6   And if the watchman

see the sword coming, and sound not with the trumpet: and the people looke not to them selues, and the sword come, and take a soule from among them: he certes is caught in his iniquitie, but his bloud I wil require of the hand of the watchman.

7   And thou sonne of man, I haue made thee a watchman to the house of Israel: hearing therfore the word from my mouth, thou shalt tel them from me.

8   If when I say to the impious: O thou impious, dying thou shalt dye: thou speake not that the impious may keepe himself from his way: the impious himself shal dye in his iniquitie, but his bloud I wil require at thy hand.

9   But if thou telling the impious, that he conuert from his wayes, he conuert not from his way: he shal dye in his iniquitie: but thou hast deliuered thy soule.

10   Thou therfore ô sonne of man say to the house of Israel: Thus you haue spoken, saying: Our iniquities, and our sinnes are vpon vs, & in them we fade away: how then can we liue?

11   Say to them: Liue I, sayeth our Lord God: ^note I wil not the death of the impious, but that the impious conuert from his way, and liue. Conuert, conuert ye from your most euil wayes: and ^note why wil you dye ô house of Israel?

12   Thou therfore sonne of man say to the children of thy people: The iustice of the iust shal not deliuer him, in what day soeuer he shal sinne: and the impietie of the impious shal not hurt him, in what day soeuer he shal conuert from his impietie: and the iust can not liue in his iustice, in what day soeuer he shal sinne.

13   Yea if I shal say to the iust that liuing he shal liue, and he trusting in his iustice doe iniquitie: al his iustices shal be forgotten, and in his iniquitie, which he hath wrought, in the same shal he dye.

14   And if I shal say to the impious: Dying thou shalt dye: and he do penance from his sinne & do iudgement and iustice,

15   and the same impious restore pledge, and render robberie, walke in the commandments of life, and doe not anie vniust thing: liuing he shal liue, & shal not dye.

16   Al his sinnes, which he hath sinned, shal not be imputed to him: he hath done iudgment and iustice, liuing he shal liue.

17   And the children of thy people, haue said: The way of our Lord is nor of equal weight, & their owne way is vniust.

18   For when the iust shal depart fr&obar; his iustice, and doe iniquities, he shal dye in them.

19   And when the impious shal depart from his impietie, and shal doe iudgements, and iustice: he shal liue in them.

20   And you say: The way of our Lord is not right, euery one according to his wayes

wil I iudge of you, ô house of Israel.

21   And it came to passe in ^note the twelfth yeare, in the tenth moneth, in the fifth of the moneth of our transmigration, there came to me one that was fled from Ierusalem, saying: The citie is made waste.

22   And the hand of our Lord had bene made to me in the euening, before he came that was fled: and he opened my mouth til he came to me in the morning, and my mouth being opened I was silent no more.

23   And the word of our Lord was made to me, saying:

24   Sonne of man: They that dwel in these ruinous places, vpon the ground of Israel, speaking doe say: Abraham was one, and by inheritance he possessed the land: but we be manie, the land is geuen vs in possession.

25   Therfore thou shalt say to them: Thus saith our Lord God: Ye that eate in bloud, & lift vp your eyes to your vncleanes, & shed bloud: what shal you possesse the land by inheritance?

26   You stood on your swords, you haue done abominations, and euerie one hath polluted his neighbours wife: and you wil possesse the land by inheritance?

27   Thus thou shalt say to them: Thus saith our Lord God: Liue I, that they which dwel in the ruinous places, shal fal by the sword: and he that is in the filde, shal be deliuered to beastes to be deuoured: and they that are in holdes, and caues, shal dye of the pestilence.

28   And I wil geue the land into a wildernes, & into a desert, and the proude strength therof shal faile, and the mountaines of Israel shal be desolate, because there is none to passe by them.

29   And they shal know that I am the Lord, when I shal geue their land desolate and desert for al their abominations, which they haue wrought.

30   And thou sonne of man: the children of thy people, which speake of thee by the walles, and in the doores of houses, and one saith to an other, a man to his neighbour, speaking: Come, and let vs heare what is the word that procedeth from our Lord.

31   And they come to thee, as if a people should goe in, and my people sitte before thee: and they heare thy wordes, and doe them not: because they turne them into a song of their mouth, and their hart foloweth their auarice.

32   And thou art vnto them as a musical song which is sung with swete and pleasant sound: and they heare thy wordes, and doe them not.

33   And when it shal come to passe which was told before (for behold it cometh) then shal they know that there was a prophet among them.

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