Ezekiel 33:11

Hebrew Bible

10 “And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what you have said: “Our rebellious acts and our sins have caught up with us, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?”’ 11 Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but prefer that the wicked change his behavior and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil deeds! Why should you die, O house of Israel?’ 12 “And you, son of man, say to your people, ‘The righteousness of the righteous will not deliver him if he rebels. As for the wicked, his wickedness will not make him stumble if he turns from it. The righteous will not be able to live by his righteousness if he sins.’

2 Peter 3:9

New Testament

8 Now, dear friends, do not let this one thing escape your notice, that a single day is like a thousand years with the Lord and a thousand years are like a single day. 9 The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; when it comes, the heavens will disappear with a horrific noise, and the celestial bodies will melt away in a blaze, and the earth and every deed done on it will be laid bare.

 Notes and References

"... The third and strongest message, written sometime after the heat of religio-political controversy had cooled, wants in part to reaffirm the truths of the earlier oracles: the inevitable harvest of national arrogance and the need for a true faith in God that resists temptations to look elsewhere for salvation. However, evidently there was now a need to temper the message to one of a limited chastening of Egypt, rather than permanent destruction. This toning down is achieved by borrowing from the language of Judah's own past and prospective experience: a limited exile and reduction in power. The reasons for this reappraisal are no longer discernible. It seeks to know the will of God in terms of a wider agenda. Perhaps there is a recognition that Yahweh may threaten, but eventually 'relents of evil' (Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2) and 'has no pleasure in the death of the wicked' (Ezekiel 33:11; compare 2 Pet 3:9). Or there may have been a desire to reckon with other, more positive, prophetic traditions concerning Egypt (compare Jeremiah 46:26): Isaiah 19:19-22 appears to bear some relation to this passage ..."

Allen, Leslie C. Word Biblical Commentary: Ezekiel 20-48 (p. 107) Word Books, 1995

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