Ezekiel Chapter 3

[⁴ ] ^5-6 “I’m not sending you to people that speak a hard foreign language you can’t understand. I’m sending you to people that should listen; ⁷ but they won’t listen to you, because they won’t listen to me. The whole house is stubborn. ⁸ I’ve made your face and forehead as hard as theirs, ⁹ like corundum, harder than flint. So don’t be afraid of them or be intimidated by them though they’re rebellious people. ¹⁰ Listen closely and take everything to heart that I tell you. ¹¹ Go to your people in exile and tell them, ‘The Lord Yahveh says,’ whether they listen or not.”

¹² The Spirit picked me up, and I heard a loud rumbling behind me, “Bless Yahveh in his place.” ¹³ I was hearing the wings of the living beings that touched one another and had the wheels beside them. ¹⁴ The Spirit took me away; I felt bitter and angry, and Yahveh’s hand weighed heavy on me. ¹⁵ I went to the exiles by the Chebar River at Tel-abib and sat there with them for a week, feeling overwhelmed.

Ezek 3:4-15

A Watchman for Israel

¹⁶ A week later a message came from Yahveh:

¹⁷ “Son of man, I’ve appointed you to be a watchman for Israel. Whenever you hear something from me, warn them. ¹⁸ When I tell sinful people they’re going to die, and you don’t warn them so they can live, they’ll die in their sin, but I’ll hold you responsible for it. ¹⁹ If you’ve warned them, and they don’t change, they’ll die in their sin, but you’ve delivered yourself. ²⁰ On the other hand, when good people start sinning and I block them, they’ll die. Since you didn’t warn them, they’ll die in their sin. I won’t consider the good they’d done, but I’ll hold you responsible for their death. ²¹ But if you’ve warned them and they quit sinning, they’ll live because they listened, and you’ll deliver yourself.”

Ezek 3:16-21

²² Yahveh put hand on me there ad said, “Get up and go out to the plain, and I’ll talk to you.” ²³ The glory of Yahveh was there, glory like I’d seen by the Chebar River; I fell on my face. ²⁴ The Spirit came into me and stood me up, and said,

“Go shut yourself up in your house. ²⁵ They’ll tie you up with ropes so you can’t go out among them. ²⁶ I’ll make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so you can’t talk. You won’t be able to rebuke them because they’re a rebellious house. ²⁷ But when I speak to you and you tell them, ‘The Lord Yahveh says,’ the ones that listen will listen; the ones that won’t, won’t. They’re a rebellious house.

Ezek 3:22-27