Ezekiel 3:4-17

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁴ He said to me, “Mortal, go to the house of Israel and speak my very words to them. ⁵ For you are not sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language but to the house of Israel, ⁶ not to many peoples of obscure speech and difficult language whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.^{(A) 7} But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me, because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.^{(B) 8} See, I have made your face hard against their faces and your forehead hard against their foreheads. ⁹ Like the hardest stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not fear them or be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.”^{(C) 10} He said to me, “Mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears; ¹¹ then go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them. Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear or refuse to hear.”^(D)

Ezekiel at the River Chebar

¹² Then the spirit lifted me up, and as the glory of the Lord rose^[a] from its place, I heard behind me the sound of loud rumbling;^{(E) 13} it was the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against one another and the sound of the wheels beside them that sounded like a loud rumbling. ¹⁴ The spirit lifted me up and bore me away; I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, the hand of the Lord being strong upon me.^{(F) 15} I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who lived by the River Chebar.^[b] And I sat there among them, stunned, for seven days.^(G)

¹⁶ At the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁷ Mortal, I have made you a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.^(H)