Ezekiel
Chapter 3
1 He also told me, “Human, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and then go and talk to the people of Israel.”
2 I opened my mouth, and he made me eat the scroll.
3 He said to me, “Human, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go speak to the house of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. And he said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.” So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness.
4 He told me, “Human, go to the people of Israel and talk to them with my words.”
5 You are not sent to people with a strange language, but to the people of Israel.
6 Not to people with unfamiliar speech and difficult language that you cannot understand. If I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you.
7 But the people of Israel will not listen to you because they don’t listen to me; all the people of Israel are stubborn and hard-hearted.
8 Look, I have made your face tough against their faces, and your forehead tough against their foreheads.
9 I have made your forehead as hard as the hardest rock: do not fear them or be frightened by their faces, even if they are a stubborn people.
10 He also told me, “Human, take all my words that I will tell you into your heart, and listen with your ears.”
11 Go to the captives, to your people’s children, talk to them and say, ‘This is what God says,’ whether they listen or not.
12 Then the spirit lifted me up, and I heard a loud sound behind me. It said, “Praise the glory of God from where He is.”
13 I also heard the sound of the living creatures’ wings touching each other, the sound of the wheels beside them, and the sound of a loud rush.
14 The Spirit lifted me up and took me away. I felt bitter and angry inside, but God’s hand was powerfully on me.
15 I went to the captives at Telabib, who lived by the Chebar River, and I sat with them. I stayed there, shocked, for seven days.
16 After seven days, God spoke to me, saying,
17 Human, I have appointed you as a lookout for the people of Israel: so listen to what I say and warn them for me.
18 When I tell a bad person they will die and you don’t warn them or tell them to stop their bad ways to save their life, that person will die for their wrongs, but I will hold you responsible for their death.
19 But if you warn the bad person, and they do not stop being bad or change their bad ways, they will die because of their sins; but you have saved yourself.
20 When a good person stops doing right and does wrong, and if I make him fall, he will die. Because you did not warn him, he will die for his sin, and his good deeds will be forgotten; but I will hold you responsible for his death.
21 If you warn a good person not to sin, and they don’t sin, they will surely live because they listened to the warning, and you have saved yourself too.
22 God’s hand was on me, and he said, “Get up, go out to the flat land, and I will speak with you there.”
23 I got up and went out to the flat land. I saw God’s glory there, just like the glory I saw by the Chebar River, and I fell down with my face to the ground.
24 Then the spirit came into me, stood me on my feet, and talked to me, and said, “Go, lock yourself inside your house.”
25 But you, human, see, they will tie you up with ropes, and you will be bound by them, and you will not be able to move around among them.
26 I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so you can’t talk or correct them, because they are a disobedient people.
27 But when I talk to you, I will open your mouth, and you will tell them, ‘This is what God says: Whoever wants to listen, let them listen; and whoever doesn’t, let them not listen.’ They are stubborn people.