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.”
YAHWEH
While I was there, YAHWEH seized me with his power, and he said to me, “Stand up, go out into the valley, and I will speak with you there.” So I got up and went down into the valley and behold, the awesome glory of YAHWEH manifested in front of me! It was like the vision of glory I had seen by the River Chebar, and I fell facedown. Then the Spirit flowed into me and set me on my feet. And I heard him say to me: “Go home and shut the door behind you. Behold! Son of man, you are about to be tied up with ropes and confined to your house and unable to mingle among the people. And I am going to make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth; you will be mute and unable to speak to rebuke this rebellious people. But whenever I want to speak through you, I will give you back the power of speech. And then you will say to them, ‘This is what Lord YAHWEH says: If you have a heart to hear, then hear! If you refuse to listen, then so be it!’—for they are a tribe of rebels.”
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