Ezekiel 3
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 3
1 He said to me: Son of man, eat what is in front of you. Eat this scroll, and then go forth to speak to the house of Israel. 2 Therefore, I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. 3 He said to me: Son of man, eat this scroll that I have given you, and eat your fill. Then I consumed it, and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey.
4 He then said to me: Son of man, go now to the house of Israel and deliver my message to them. 5 For you are not being sent to a people that speaks a difficult and barbaric language, but to the house of Israel. 6 I am not sending you to great nations, whose speech you would not be able to comprehend, although they would listen to what you had to say.
7 However, the house of Israel will not listen to you because it would not listen to me. The whole house of Israel is defiant and obstinate in heart. 8 But I will make you as defiant and obstinate as they are. 9 I will make your resolve as hard as a diamond. I have made your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not fear them, or be concerned about their appearance, for they are a rebellious house.
10 He went on: Listen carefully, son of man, to all my words. Receive them into your heart and hear them with your ears. 11 Then go to your countrymen in exile and say to them, “Thus says the Lord,” whether they listen or refuse to listen.
12 Then a Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the sound of loud rumbling as the glory of the Lord rose from its place: 13 the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against one another, and the sound of the wheels beside them, a fierce rumbling sound. 14 The Spirit lifted me up and carried me away, and I departed in bitterness and anger, as the hand of the Lord rested heavily upon me. 15 I came to the exiles at Tel-abib[a] who lived by the River Chebar, and for seven days I sat among them in a state of consternation.
16 The Prophet as Sentry. At the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me: 17 Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them my warning. 18 If I say to a wicked man, “You will surely die,” and you fail to warn him about this or do not advise him to cease his wicked conduct and thereby save his life, the wicked man will die because of his iniquity, but I will hold you responsible for his death. 19 But if you have warned him and he continues to persist in his evil ways, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved your life.
20 Again, if a virtuous man ceases to be virtuous and does wrong, and I set a trap for him, he will die because you failed to warn him. He will die for his sin, and his virtuous deeds will no longer be remembered. However, I will hold you responsible for his death because you did not warn him. 21 However, if you have warned an upright man not to sin and he does not sin, then he will have saved his life because he heeded your warning, and you will have saved your life.
22 Ezekiel Struck Dumb.[b]While I was there, the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he said to me: Rise up, go out into the valley, and there I will speak to you. 23 I arose, and when went out to the valley, the glory of the Lord was there, like the glory I had seen by the River Chebar, and I fell prostrate on the ground.
24 Then a Spirit entered into me and raised me to my feet, and he spoke with me and said: Go forth and shut yourself up in your house. 25 You will be tied and bound with ropes, O son of man, so that you cannot go out among the people. 26 I will make your tongue stick to your palate so that you will become dumb and be unable to reprove them, for they are a rebellious people. 27 But when I have spoken to you, I will open your mouth, and you will say to them, “This is what the Lord God said.” If anyone wishes to listen, he may listen. If anyone refuses to listen, he may refuse. For they are a rebellious house.
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 3:15 Tel-abib: an unidentified place in Babylonia; the name means “hill of the ear of grain.”
- Ezekiel 3:22 In words all the more impressive because preceded by mimed scenes, Ezekiel foretells the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. A first series of such scenes (Ezek 4:1-3, 9-17; 5:1-17) must date from the very year of the prophet’s call. A second must be closer to the moment of the fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C.
Ezekiel 3
Living Bible
3 And he said to me: “Son of dust, eat what I am giving you—eat this scroll! Then go and give its message to the people of Israel.”
2 So I took the scroll.
3 “Eat it all,” he said. And when I ate it, it tasted sweet as honey.
4 Then he said: “Son of dust, I am sending you to the people of Israel with my messages. 5 I am not sending you to some far-off foreign land where you can’t understand the language— 6 no, not to tribes with strange, difficult tongues. (If I did, they would listen!) 7 I am sending you to the people of Israel, and they won’t listen to you any more than they listen to me! For the whole lot of them are hard, impudent, and stubborn. 8 But see, I have made you hard and stubborn too—as tough as they are. 9 I have made your forehead as hard as rock. So don’t be afraid of them, or fear their sullen, angry looks, even though they are such rebels.”
10 Then he added: “Son of dust, let all my words sink deep into your own heart first; listen to them carefully for yourself. 11 Then, afterward, go to your people in exile, and whether or not they will listen, tell them: ‘This is what the Lord God says!’”
12 Then the Spirit lifted me up, and the glory of the Lord began to move away, accompanied by the sound of a great earthquake.[a] 13 It was the noise of the wings of the living beings as they touched against each other, and the sound of their wheels beside them.
14-15 The Spirit lifted me up, and took me away to Tel Abib, another colony of Jewish exiles beside the Chebar River. I went in bitterness and anger,[b] but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me. And I sat among them, overwhelmed, for seven days.
16 At the end of the seven days, the Lord said to me:
17 “Son of dust, I have appointed you as a watchman for Israel; whenever I send my people a warning, pass it on to them at once. 18 If you refuse to warn the wicked when I want you to tell them, ‘You are under the penalty of death; therefore repent and save your life,’ they will die in their sins, but I will punish you. I will demand your blood for theirs. 19 But if you warn them, and they keep on sinning and refuse to repent, they will die in their sins, but you are blameless—you have done all you could. 20 And if a good man becomes bad, and you refuse to warn him of the consequences, and the Lord destroys him, his previous good deeds won’t help him—he shall die in his sin. But I will hold you responsible for his death and punish you. 21 But if you warn him and he repents, he shall live, and you have saved your own life too.”
22 I was helpless in the hand of God, and when he said to me, “Go out into the valley and I will talk to you there”— 23 I arose and went, and oh, I saw the glory of the Lord there, just as in my first vision! And I fell to the ground on my face.
24 Then the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet. He talked to me and said: “Go, imprison yourself in your house, 25 and I will paralyze you[c] so you can’t leave; 26 and I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you can’t reprove them; for they are rebels. 27 But whenever I give you a message, then I will loosen your tongue and let you speak, and you shall say to them: ‘The Lord God says.’ Let anyone listen who wants to, and let anyone refuse who wants to, for they are rebels.
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 3:12 accompanied by the sound of a great earthquake, literally, “I heard behind me the sound of a great earthquake.”
- Ezekiel 3:14 I went in bitterness and anger, literally, “I went in the heat of my spirit”—not necessarily anger, but indicated here by this reaction.
- Ezekiel 3:25 paralyze you, literally, “lay bands upon you.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.