Ezekiel 3:6–21

⁶not 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.^{* 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.^{* 8}See, I have made your face hard against their faces and your forehead hard against their foreheads. ⁹Like 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.”^{* 10}He said to me, “Mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears; ¹¹then 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.”^*

Ezekiel at the River Chebar

¹²Then the spirit lifted me up, and as the glory of the Lord rose^h from its place, I heard behind me the sound of loud rumbling;^{* 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. ¹⁴The 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.^{* 15}I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who lived by the River Chebar.ⁱ And I sat there among them, stunned, for seven days.^*

¹⁶At the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁷Mortal, 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.^{* 18}When I say to the wicked, “You shall surely die,” and you give them no warning and do not speak to warn the wicked from their wicked way in order to save their lives, those wicked persons shall die for their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand.^{* 19}But if you warn the wicked and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their wicked way, they shall die for their iniquity, but you will have saved your life.^{* 20}Again, if the righteous turn from their righteousness and commit iniquity and I lay a stumbling block before them, they shall die; because you have not warned them, they shall die for their sin, and their righteous deeds that they have done shall not be remembered, but their blood I will require at your hand.^{* 21}If, however, you warn the righteous not to sin and they do not sin, they shall surely live because they took warning, and you will have saved your life.^*