Ezekiel 3:1-21

He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you see in front of you; eat this scroll, then go and speak to the people of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and he fed me the scroll, saying, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving to you and fill your belly with it.” So I began to chew it, and it tasted as sweet as honey. Then he said, “Son of man, now go to the people of Israel and speak my words to them. I am not sending you to a nation that speaks a difficult foreign language but to the people of Israel—not to nations whose complex languages you could not understand and who speak words you cannot even pronounce. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you, but the people of Israel will refuse to listen to you because they refuse to listen to me. The whole family of Israel has a hard heart and is stubbornly defiant. But now, I will make you as stubborn and defiant as they are! I will make your resolve as hard as the hardest stone, even harder than flint. So do not fear them or be afraid because of their angry stares, for they are a tribe of rebels.” Then he said, “Son of man, listen carefully and take to heart everything I say to you, then go to the Jews in exile and say to them, ‘Listen to what Lord YAHWEH says,’ whether they listen or not.” Then the Spirit lifted me up, and behind me I heard a loud, thunderous voice: “Blessed be the glory of YAHWEH in his sanctuary!” I heard the sound of the living creatures as their wings kissed each other and the sound of the rumbling wheels beside them, like the sound of a great earthquake. The Spirit lifted me up and took me away. I went in the heat of my spirit, and the hand of YAHWEH rested powerfully upon me. The Spirit took me to Tel Abib, the very place where the Jewish exiles were living beside the River Chebar. I remained there with them for a week, dumbfounded and overwhelmed by what I had seen and heard. Afterward, YAHWEH spoke the following words to me: “Son of man, I am appointing you as a watchman for the people of Israel. When you hear me speak to you, give them my warning. If I say to wicked people, ‘You are headed toward certain death,’ and you fail to give them warning by not speaking up to warn the evil ones against their evil courses so as to keep them alive, then the wicked ones will die for their sinful deeds. But I will hold you responsible for their deaths. But if you do warn the wicked and they keep sinning anyway, they’ll most certainly die for their sin, but you won’t die. You’ll have saved your life. And if righteous people turn away from righteous living and pursue a life of sin, I will set calamities before them, and they will die. Because you did not give them warning, they will die for their sinful deeds, and all the righteous deeds done earlier in life will not be remembered. But I will hold you responsible for their deaths. If, however, you do warn a righteous person not to sin and he responds to your warning, that person will live, and you will have also saved your life.”