On Individual Righteousness

¹²The word of the Lord came to me: ¹³O mortal, if a land were to sin against Me and commit a trespass, and I stretched out My hand against it and broke its staff of bread, and sent famine against it and cut off man and beast from it, ¹⁴even if these three men—Noah, Daniel, and Job—should be in it, they would by their righteousness save only themselves—declares the Lord God. ¹⁵Or, if I were to send wild beasts to roam the land and they depopulated it, and it became a desolation with none passing through it because of the beasts, ¹⁶as I live—declares the Lord God—those three men in it would save neither sons nor daughters; they alone would be saved, but the land would become a desolation. ¹⁷Or, if I were to bring the sword upon that land and say, “Let a sword sweep through the land so that I may cut off from it man and beast,” ¹⁸if those three men should be in it, as I live—declares the Lord God—they would save neither sons nor daughters, but they alone would be saved. ¹⁹Or, if I let loose a pestilence against that land, and poured out My fury upon it in blood, cutting off from it man and beast, ²⁰should Noah, Daniel, and Job be in it, as I live—declares the Lord God—they would save neither son nor daughter; they would save themselves alone by their righteousness.