And when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he shall live by this.
Israel complains that their sins weigh them down and they are wasting away, but they twist God's conditional promise into a mockery, as if He had set life out of reach on purpose. They pervert the prophet's word, turning what was meant to drive them to repentance into an excuse for despair. Thus corrupt minds pick quarrels with God's mercy itself.
AI summary
Commenting on Ezekiel 33:10-20
And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity,.... Of Jeconiah's captivity, when Ezekiel with others were carried into Babylon; see Eze 1:2. in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month; which was a year, four months, and some days, after the city of Jerusalem was taken; for that was destroyed in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, and so...
He shall live thereby - "The wages of sin is death;" the "gift of God is eternal life." It is a miserable trade by which a man cannot live; such a trade is sin.