Ezekiel 3:6–21

⁶You are not being sent to many peoples of unintelligible speech or difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. No doubt, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you. ^l7But the house of Israel will not want to listen to you because they do not want to listen to Me. ^mFor the whole house of Israel is hardheaded and hardhearted. ⁸Look, I have made your face as hard as their faces and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. ⁿ⁹I have made your forehead like a diamond, harder than flint. Don’t be afraid of them or discouraged by the look on their faces, even though they are a rebellious house.”

¹⁰Next He said to me: “Son of man, listen carefully to all My words that I speak to you and take them to heart. ¹¹Go to your people, the exiles, and speak to them. Tell them, ‘This is what the Lord God says,’ whether they listen or refuse to listen.” ^o

¹²The Spirit then lifted me up, ^pand I heard a great rumbling sound behind me—praise the glory of the Lord in His place!— ¹³with the ^qsound of the living creatures’ wings brushing against each other ^rand the sound of the wheels beside them, ^sa great rumbling sound. ¹⁴So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away. I left in bitterness and in an angry spirit, and the Lord’s hand was on me powerfully. ^t15I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who were living by the Chebar Canal, and I sat there among them stunned for seven days. ^u

Ezekiel as a Watchman

¹⁶Now at the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me: ^v17“Son of man, I have made you a watchman over the house of Israel. ^wWhen you hear a word from My mouth, give them a warning from Me. ^x18If I say to the wicked person, ^y‘You will surely die,’ but you do not warn him—you don’t speak out to warn him about his wicked way in order to save his life—that wicked person will die for his iniquity. Yet I will hold you responsible for his blood. ¹⁹But if you warn a wicked person and he does not turn from his wickedness or his wicked way, he will die for his iniquity, but you will have saved your life. ^z20Now if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity, ^aand I put a stumbling block in front of him, he will die. ^bIf you did not warn him, he will die because of his sin and the righteous acts he did will not be remembered. Yet I will hold you responsible for his blood. ²¹But if you warn the righteous person that he should not sin, and he does not sin, he will indeed live because he listened to your warning, and you will have saved your life.”