Ezekiel 3:18 (YLT)

Passage

In My saying to the wicked: Thou dost surely die; and thou hast not warned him, nor hast spoken to warn the wicked from his wicked way, so that he doth live; he--the wicked--in his iniquity dieth, and his blood from thy hand I require.

Nearby Context

Ezekiel 3:16 And it cometh to pass, at the end of seven days,

Ezekiel 3:17 that there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying, `Son of man, a watchman I have given thee to the house of Israel, and thou hast heard from My mouth a word, and hast warned them from Me.

Ezekiel 3:18 In My saying to the wicked: Thou dost surely die; and thou hast not warned him, nor hast spoken to warn the wicked from his wicked way, so that he doth live; he--the wicked--in his iniquity dieth, and his blood from thy hand I require.

Ezekiel 3:19 And thou, because thou hast warned the wicked, and he hath not turned back from his wickedness, and from his wicked way, he in his iniquity dieth, and thou thy soul hast delivered.

Ezekiel 3:20 `And in the turning back of the righteous from his righteousness, and he hath done perversity, and I have put a stumbling-block before him, he dieth; because thou hast not warned him, in his sin he dieth, and not remembered is his righteousness that he hath done, and his blood from thy hand I require.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "saying", "wicked", "thou", "dost", "surely", "hast", and "warned". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "saying" and "wicked", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 17's "that there is a word of Jehovah..." into verse 19's "And thou because thou hast warned the...", so "saying" and "wicked" belong inside that flow. In Ezekiel context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "saying" and "wicked" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.