Глава 33

Ezek.33:1–2. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, speak to the sons of your people. God, out of good pleasure, calls the people His people, but, turning away from them for their iniquities, He no longer uses this appropriative name. This, as can be seen, was the case under Moses. For before committing lawlessness, God said to Pharaoh: “Let My people go, that they may serve Me” (Exodus 7:16), and after serving the calf he said to Moses: “Go quickly, get away from here, for your people are lawless” (Exodus 32:7). Therefore, here also he calls not His people, but the people of the Prophet. Ezek.33:2–5. and say to them, “Earth, if I bring the sword upon him, the people of the earth will understand the only man of themselves, and will make him their guard, and will see the sword coming on the earth, and will sound the trumpet, and preach to the people, and will hear the voice of the trumpet, and will not be saved, and will find the sword and overtake him; his blood will be on his head, as if he had heard the voice of the trumpet, and if it does not survive, his blood will be on him. He calls war “sword”, and “guard” the spy. This word teaches us that God Himself, out of goodness, gives peace to people, but allows war because of the iniquities of people, who bring sorrow upon themselves. Therefore, he says, if during a war that threatens any nation, those who are under attack, place a spy on some eminence, and he, seeing the approaching army, gives a sign with a trumpet, and does not neglect this, and does not show negligence about those who assigned him to this matter, then he himself will be innocent, having completed the work entrusted to him, and whoever did not want to protect himself and take care of his salvation, he He himself will be the culprit of his own death and his own captivity. Therefore, he says: “His blood will be on him,” that is, let him place the blame of death on himself. “But this one, even though he was preserved, delivered his soul,” that is, if he preserves himself, he will become the author of his own salvation. Ezek.33:6. And if the guard sees the sword coming, and does not blow the trumpet, and does not preach to the people, and the people do not protect themselves, and having found the sword, he takes away the soul from them, because he took iniquity for his own sake, and I will exact its blood from the hand of the guard, that is, if the appointed spy through negligence does not let the people know about the invasion of the enemies, then those taken captive will be punished for what they sinned, and the guard himself will be held accountable for the betrayal he committed. God said this to make the Prophet more thorough in serving the word. Why does it add: Ezek.33:7. And you, son of man, have made you a guardian for the house of Israel, and you will hear a word from My mouth, and preach it to them from Me, that is, what spies usually do in wartime, you, Prophet, must do, and communicate what I have said to others with all diligence. Ezek.33:8. When I say to a sinner: O sinner, thou shalt die, and thou shalt not say unto the sinner, that the wicked may be saved from turning from his way, and that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, and I will require his blood at thy hand. If I pronounce a death sentence on someone, says God, and you do not notify him of the sentence pronounced in order to destroy this determination for him through repentance, then he will find an end worthy of life, and I will demand from you an account of his death. If you make known to someone living in lawlessness everything that I have determined, but he neglects your words and remains in his malice, then he will suffer a just punishment, and you will free yourself from responsibility. Ezek.33:10. And you, son of man, spokesmen of the house of Israel, resting with this face: our deceits and our iniquities are within us, and we melt in them, and how can we be alive? When I, says God, use all measures to save Israel and do not want them to despair; They themselves utter words of despair and think that salvation through repentance is impossible for them, saying that the heaviest burden of sins lies on them, and to this day they are still in delusion and lawlessness, and they consider it impossible for anyone in such a state to receive salvation through repentance. Ezek.33:11. Therefore say to them: As I live, says the Lord Adonai, I do not want the sinner to die, but to turn him from his way, and I live to be him: Who will worthily marvel at the goodness of the Lord? Before Him they are ungrateful and extremely ungrateful, but He also cares about the ungrateful, providing for them in every possible way, wanting to see a change in them. That’s why he adds a fatherly and compassionate exhortation. By conversion, turn from the path of your evil: and why are you dying in the house of Israel? The aggravation of speech is a distinctive property of the Hebrew language and expresses the sincerity of the conversion. Ezek.33:12. And you, son of man, speak to the sons of your people: the righteousness of the righteous will not deliver him, in the same day he will be deceived, and the wicked will not kill him, in the same day he will turn from his iniquity. In the intention of assuring that he accepts the sinner’s repentance, God proves this by contradiction. For he says: as if one of those who lived virtuously leaves this path and chooses the path of vice, then, of necessity, he will find an end worthy of this path; Thus, if someone who has grown up in lawlessness wishes to take the path of virtue, then, without a doubt, he will be freed from the punishment imposed on the lawless. Ezek.33:13–15. Whenever I give a river to a righteous man, he will live by life, but he trusts in his righteousness, and will do iniquity, all his righteousness will not be remembered; in his iniquity, whatever he has done, in that he will die; He will walk in life without committing unrighteousness; he will live by life and not die. And the promise of good things that I have given, says God, will not benefit the righteous if he does not continue in doing good deeds; on the contrary, he will receive a worthy punishment for what he has done in life; and the determination of punishment will not harm the sinner if he intends to use the medicine of repentance, frees himself from all unrighteousness, shows love to his neighbor and, in a word, decides to preserve what I have commanded. For by his change he has destroyed the definition and will enjoy life, and what is most desirable, says God, Ezek.33:16. All his sins, even those he has sinned, will not be remembered to him: until he has done justice and righteousness, he will live in them. Thus, having proven His goodness, He exposes the incompetence of the people. Ezek.33:17. And the sons of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not right: and this way of theirs is not right. According to Me, says God, such goodness and such love for mankind, they dare to slander My economy, as if it were wrong, while they should have understood from their very deeds that all My orders are right and fair, but with them everything is corrupt. Then he puts the same thing more clearly in the form of a question: “Hear ye house of Israel: Is my way wrong? Isn’t your path wrong?” 21. Then he repeats what has been said and says that the righteous man who chooses sin will be punished, and the sinner who returns to righteousness will receive salvation. But, God says, this did not seem fair to you. Why did I add: Ezek.33:20. And behold, I say: the way of the Lord is wrong. Then he says decisively: “I will judge everyone according to his way, O house of Israel.” This is enough to convince even the most insensitive to love a change in their vicious life. Ezek.33:21. And it came to pass in the second tenth year, the second tenth month, on the fifth day of the month of our captivity, that the survivor came to me from Jerusalem, saying, The city was taken captive. Ezek.33:22. And the hand of the Lord was upon me in the evening, before the survivor came, and my mouth was opened until he came to me in the morning: and my mouth, which was opened, was not shut to anyone. The Syriac translator says: “in the eleventh year and in the twelfth month”; and this is more correct: because the city was taken in the eleventh year. The Prophet says that at the appointed time someone came with the news of the capture of Jerusalem, but the Lord had previously put a word of prophecy into him in the evening, and when the one who came in the morning appeared and reported the news, God did not allow the prophetic words to be kept in silence, but set him up and commanded him to speak them without ceasing, because the Lord, before everyone, knows the time for both silence and speaking. Ezek.33:23. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Ezek.33:24. To the son of man, living in the deserted places in the land of Israel, they say with a verb: Abraham was one, and he took possession of the land, and we are the greatest, and we were given the land to possess. They suffer from insensibility beyond measure: for, after so many and severe punishments, they do not cease to be insolent, and seeing the desolation of Judea, they dare to say: if Abraham, being alone, owned the earth, then much more will we, when there are many of us, be its masters. But Abraham’s virtue and his own malice had to be known, and not rely on numbers, but seek the truth. Therefore, the Lord pronounces such a reproof against them. Ezek.33:25–26. For this reason, they say to them: Adonai the Lord says: You have eaten blood, and your eyes are lifted up to your idols, and you shed blood, and will you inherit the land? Stand with your sword, you have committed abomination, and you have desecrated your neighbor’s wife, and will you inherit the land? Relying on your deeds, you hope to own the land of your country, while your life is lawless, because you are doing what is prohibited by law: you eat the blood that I forbade the law of Noah, and through Moses commanded to be shed on the earth; You respect the service of idols and do not stop murders and adulteries. Therefore, when you dare to do such things, do not expect to inherit the earth. Ezek.33:27. This says the Lord Adonai: As I live, those who are in the desolate lands will fall with the sword, and those who are in the fields will be devoured by wild beasts, and those who are in the cities and those who are in the caves will be slain with death, Ezek.33:28. and I will give the land to be desolate, Confirmation of what was said: “I live in Az.” God says that those living in fortified cities and in caves and in deserted places will suffer the punishments described above, and showing the reason, he adds: and the pride of her fortress will perish, and the mountains of Israel will be desolate, without anyone passing by. Ezek.33:29. And they will know that I am the Lord: and I will make their land desolate, and it will desolate them all because of the abominations that I have created. All this teaches them and us that those who live in lawlessness should rely not on many and countless thousands of people, but on only the medicines of repentance, which the Lord had previously shown. Ezek.33:30–31. And you, son of man, the sons of your people will speak about you at the gates, and in the gates of the courtyards, and each one will speak to his neighbor, and each one to his brother, saying: Let us gather together and hear the word coming from the Lord. And they come to you, as men come together, and My people sit before you, and they will listen to your words, and will not do them. Therefore, everything that was said before was said about those who were in Judea, and this is said about those who had already become captives and living in Babylon, who wanted to listen to the prophetic words, but did not yet agree to obey what was said, and on the contrary, when they were commanded to go to the Prophet and find out God’s commandments, in their meetings they did not cease to contradict each other. This is why it is said: “They will not create them. There is no lie in their mouth,” that is, the heart does not agree with what the tongue says. And their hearts follow filth; because they listen to the word only for pleasure, and not for benefit. Therefore, God very opportunely adds: Ezek.33:32. And you will be to them like the voice of a sweetly blessed singer, that is, how those who listen to any organ emitting a harmonious sound receive pleasure from it, and not knowledge of the sounds themselves; so your words, Prophet, delight their ears alone, but do not soften the soul living in wickedness. For God added this too. And they will hear your words, and will not do them: no more lies are in their mouth. But, not believing now, when they see the fulfillment of the prophecy, they will be convinced by experience, for it is said: Ezek.33:33. Whenever they come they say, behold, they have come, and they will take you away, for a Prophet was among them. What they do not believe now will be believed as a result of events, and then they will recognize prophetic power. After this he turns his speech to the shepherds; He calls not only kings, but also priests shepherds, and denounces them for shamelessness, negligence and betrayal of the sheep. These words are not readable in the seventy even in Hebrew, but were probably taken from a place similar to this in Ezekiel 18:25.