None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him: God will forgive the evil people who repent and stop sinning. For the Hebrew word rendered transgressions, see the comments on 14.11. In this context the verb remembered has the sense of “charging or crediting something to someone’s account,” so this sentence means that when God judges evil people who have repented, he will not take into account any of the sins they did before they reformed their lives. Their judgment will depend entirely on the good things that they do after they repent. A possible model for this sentence is “When I judge those people, I will not take into account any of those sins they committed in the past.”

For the righteousness which he has done he shall live: Repentant sinners will live because of the good things they do after they stop sinning. New Century Version says “Because they have done what is right, they will live.”

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .