23 [a]Have I any desire that the wicked should die, saith the Lord God? [b]or shall he not live, if he return from his ways?

24 But if the righteous turn away from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and do according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? all his [c]righteousness that he hath done, shall not be mentioned: but in his transgression that he hath committed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.

25 Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not [d]equal: hear now, O house of Israel. Is not my way equal? or are not your ways unequal?

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 18:23 He speaketh this to commend God’s mercy to poor sinners, who rather is ready to pardon than to punish, as his long suffering declareth, Ezek. 33:11. Albeit God in his eternal counsel appointed the death and damnation of the reprobate, yet the end of his counsel was not their death only, but chiefly his own glory. Also because he doth not approve sin, therefore it is here said that he would have them to turn away from it, that they might live.
  2. Ezekiel 18:23 Or, rather that he may return from his ways, and live.
  3. Ezekiel 18:24 That is, the false opinion that the hypocrites have of their righteousness.
  4. Ezekiel 18:25 In punishing the father with the children.

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