16 None of his sins that he has committed shall be [seriously] remembered against him; he has done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.
17 Yet your people say, The way of the Lord is not perfect or even just; but as for them, it is their own way that is not perfect or even just.
18 When the righteous turns back from his [uncompromising] righteousness and commits perverseness and iniquity, he shall even die in and because of it.
19 But if the wicked turns back from his wickedness and does what is lawful and right, he shall live because of it.
20 Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not perfect or [even] just. O you house of Israel, I will judge you, every one according to his own ways!
21 In the twelfth year of our captivity [in Babylon], in the tenth [month], on the fifth [day] of the month, a man who had escaped out of Jerusalem came to me [Ezekiel], saying, The city [Jerusalem] is taken.
22 Now the hand of the Lord had been upon me in the evening before this one who had escaped came, and He had opened my mouth [in readiness for the fugitives] coming to me in the morning, and my mouth was opened and I was no longer dumb.