Ezekiel, 3

¹ Then he said to me: “Son of man, eat what is before you.^*1 Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”

² So I opened my mouth, and he made me eat this scroll.

³ He went on to say to me: “Son of man, eat this scroll that I am giving you, and fill your stomach with it.” So I began to eat it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

⁴ He said to me: “Son of man, go in among the house of Israel and speak my words to them.

⁵ For you are not being sent to a people who speak an unintelligible language or an unknown tongue, but to the house of Israel.

⁶ You are not being sent to many peoples speaking an unintelligible language or an unknown tongue, whose words you cannot understand. If I would send you to them, they would listen to you.

⁷ But the house of Israel will refuse to listen to you, for they do not want to listen to me. All those of the house of Israel are hardheaded and hardhearted.

⁸ Look! I have made your face exactly as hard as their faces and your forehead exactly as hard as their foreheads.

⁹ I have made your forehead like a diamond, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or be terrified by their faces, for they are a rebellious house.”

¹⁰ He went on to say to me: “Son of man, take to heart and listen to all my words that I speak to you.

¹¹ Go in among the exiles of your people^*1 and speak to them. Tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says,’ whether they listen or refuse to listen.”

¹² A spirit then carried me along and I heard behind me a great rumbling sound that said: “May the glory of Jehovah be praised from his place.”

¹³ There was the sound of the wings of the living creatures as they were brushing against one another, and the sound of the wheels next to them, and the sound of a great rumbling.

¹⁴ And the spirit carried me along and took me, and I went in bitterness and in the rage of my spirit, and the hand of Jehovah rested strongly on me.

¹⁵ So I went to the exiled people at Tel-aʹbib, who were dwelling by the river Cheʹbar, and I stayed there where they were dwelling; and in a dazed condition, I stayed among them for seven days.

¹⁶ At the end of seven days the word of Jehovah came to me:

¹⁷ “Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman to the house of Israel; and when you hear a word from my mouth, you must warn them from me.

¹⁸ When I say to someone wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ but you do not warn him, and you fail to speak in order to warn the wicked one to turn from his wicked course so that he may stay alive, he will die for his error because he is wicked, but I will ask his blood back from you.^*1

¹⁹ But if you warn someone wicked and he does not turn back from his wickedness and from his wicked course, he will die for his error, but you will certainly save your own life.^*1

²⁰ But when someone righteous abandons his righteousness and does what is wrong,^*1 I will put a stumbling block before him and he will die. If you did not warn him, he will die for his sin and his righteous acts will not be remembered, but I will ask his blood back from you.^*2

²¹ But if you have warned the righteous one not to sin, and he does not sin, he will surely keep alive because he was warned, and you will have saved your own life.”^*1

²² The hand of Jehovah came upon me there, and he said to me: “Get up, go to the valley plain, and I will speak with you there.”

²³ So I got up and went to the valley plain, and look! the glory of Jehovah was there, like the glory that I saw by the river Cheʹbar, and I fell facedown.

²⁴ Then spirit entered into me and made me stand up on my feet, and he spoke to me and said: “Go, shut yourself inside your house.

²⁵ As for you, son of man, they will put ropes on you and tie you with them so that you cannot go out among them.

²⁶ And I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, and you will become mute, unable to reprove them, because they are a rebellious house.

²⁷ But when I speak with you I will open your mouth, and you must say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says.’ Let the one listening listen, and let the one refusing to listen refuse, because they are a rebellious house.