Ezekiel — Chapter 33

Again the word of the Lord came to me: the second watchman commission (cf. ch. 3). Lapide notes that God renews the commission after the prophetic experience of the Temple's fall and Ezekiel's vindication. He reads this as a pattern of spiritual renewal — the prophet who has been faithful through the dark night is recommissioned with greater authority.

If anyone hears the sound of the trumpet but does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head: Lapide's most direct statement on subjective moral responsibility in the face of clear warning. The preacher/confessor who warns clearly has fulfilled his duty; the hearer's subsequent sin is the hearer's alone. He uses this to structure his theology of the limits of pastoral responsibility.

'Vivo ego, dicit Dominus: nolo mortem impii sed ut convertatur impius a via sua et vivat' — As I live, says the Lord, I do not desire the death of the wicked: Lapide's most important anti-Calvinist text in Ezekiel. God's universal salvific will is expressed in an oath ('vivo ego'), showing the utmost divine seriousness. He cites this verse against predestinarian interpretations of double predestination.

The people come to hear Ezekiel 'as the people is wont to come' but their heart goes after covetousness: Lapide applies this to the distinction between external religious observance and interior conversion. He cites Chrysostom and Jerome on the danger of hearing sermons as entertainment without acting on them.