Ezekiel 33:11

Say to them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, {f} I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked should turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? (f) See Geneva Eze 18:23

Say unto them, [As] I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord God, … — This is one of those precious places, those mellifluous honeycombs, which we should go on sucking towards heaven, as Samson once did towards his parents. Judges 14:9 Here, if anywhere, we may find "strong consolation." God, when he swears, desires certainly to be credited, saith Tertullian. Lib. de Poenitent., cap. 4. Oh happy we, for whose sakes God vouchsafeth to swear! and oh, thrice wretched we, if we believe not God, no, though he swear to us! Oh, saith Theodoret here, who can ever sufficiently admire the Lord’s great goodness, who, being so shamefully slighted by the sinful sons of men, doth yet swear his readiness to receive them graciously who have revolted grievously? Well might Nazianzen say that God delighteth in nothing so much as in man’s conversion and salvation: Suffundere mavult sanguinem quam effundere. - Tertul. φοβεισθαι βουλεται, ου φονευσαι , saith Basil - i.e., he would we should fear him, not fall by his hand: Redire nos sibi, non perire desiderat, as Chrysologus phraseth it, return unto him, not "perish from the way." Psalms 2:12 For why will ye die? — Turn ye must, or burn. See Ezekiel 18:31-32 .

As I live, saith the Lord God: see Ezekiel 5:11 16:48 17:16 . I have no pleasure: see Ezekiel 18:23 ,32 . But that the wicked: here is an ellipsis; but I have pleasure in the seasonable return the sinner makes from sin to holiness, and from death to life. Turn ye; O leave sin, cease to do evil, be persuaded to repent; it will please me to pardon your faults, and to throw away the rod, and to save your persons. Why will ye die? death is your choice, not mine, so long as you go on in the way that is not good; whoso sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul, and love to sin is interpretatively a love and choosing of death. It is your culpable will, not my severe resolution, that you die.

Say unto them, as I live, saith the Lord,.... The following is the answer returned from the Lord by the prophet to their above complaint and reasoning; to which is premised the oath of God, showing the certainty, reality, and sincerity of what is said, which might be depended on as true: I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, &c. See Gill on Ezekiel 18:23 , Ezekiel 18:31 , Ezekiel 18:32 ,

Those who despaired of finding mercy with God, are answered with a solemn declaration of God's readiness to show mercy. The ruin of the city and state was determined, but that did not relate to the final state of persons. God says to the righteous, that he shall surely live. But many who have made profession, have been ruined by proud confidence in themselves. Man trusts to his own righteousness, and presuming on his own sufficiency, he is brought to commit iniquity. If those who have lived a wicked life repent and forsake their wicked ways, they shall be saved. Many such amazing and blessed changes have been wrought by the power of Divine grace. When there is a settled separation between a man and sin, there shall no longer be a separation between him and God.

11. To meet the Jews' cry of despair in Eze 33:10, Ezekiel here cheers them by the assurance that God has no pleasure in their death, but that they should repent and live (2Pe 3:9). A yearning tenderness manifests itself here, notwithstanding all their past sins; yet with it a holiness that abates nothing of its demands for the honor of God's authority. God's righteousness is vindicated as in Eze 3:18-21 and Eze 18:1-32, by the statement that each should be treated with the closest adaptation of God's justice to his particular case.

Again - And. For Ezekiel 33:1-20 , compare Ezekiel 18 notes.