Ezekiel 3:6–21

⁶nor to many peoples of ¹unintelligible speech or difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. ²But I have sent you to them ³who should listen to you;

⁷yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, since they are ^anot willing to listen to Me. Surely the whole house of Israel is ¹stubborn and obstinate.

⁸“Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces and your forehead as hard as their foreheads.

⁹“Like ¹emery harder than flint I have made your forehead. Do not be afraid of them or be dismayed before them, though they are a rebellious house.”

¹⁰Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, take into your heart all My ^awords which I will speak to you and listen ¹closely.

¹¹“¹Go to the exiles, to the sons of your people, and speak to them and tell them, whether they listen or ²not, ‘Thus says the Lord ³God.’ ”

¹²Then the ^aSpirit lifted me up, and I heard a great ^brumbling sound behind me, “Blessed be the glory of the Lord ¹in His place.”

¹³And I heard the sound of the wings of the living beings touching one another and the sound of the ^awheels beside them, even a great rumbling sound.

¹⁴So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away; and I went embittered in the rage of my spirit, and ^athe hand of the Lord was strong on me.

¹⁵Then I came to the exiles who lived beside the river Chebar at Tel-abib, and I sat there ^aseven days where they were living, causing consternation among them.

^16aAt the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

¹⁷“Son of man, I have appointed you a ^awatchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, ^bwarn them from Me.

¹⁸“When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his ^ablood I will require at your hand.

¹⁹“Yet if you have ^awarned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have ^bdelivered yourself.

²⁰“Again, ^awhen a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I place an ^bobstacle before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand.

²¹“However, if you have ^awarned ¹the righteous man that the righteous should not sin and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; and you have delivered yourself.”