Ezekiel 3

1 # Ezek 2.8, 9 He said to me, “O mortal, eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” 2So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. 3#Ps 19.10; 119.103; Jer 15.16; Rev 10.9, 10He said to me, “Mortal, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey.

4He said to me, “Mortal, go to the house of Israel and speak my very words to them. 5For you are not sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language but to the house of Israel, 6#Mt 11.21, 23; Acts 13.46–48not 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#Ezek 2.4; Jn 15.20But 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. 8See, I have made your face hard against their faces and your forehead hard against their foreheads. 9#Isa 50.7; Ezek 2.6; Mic 3.8Like 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.” 10He said to me, “Mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears; 11#Ezek 2.5, 7then 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

12 # Ezek 8.3; Acts 2.2; 8.39 Then the spirit lifted me up, and as the glory of the Lord rose#3.12 Cn: Heb and blessed be the glory of the Lord from its place, I heard behind me the sound of loud rumbling; 13it 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. 14#Jer 6.11; Ezek 1.3; 8.1The 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#Job 2.13; Ezek 1.1I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who lived by the River Chebar.#3.15 Heb mss Syr: MT Chebar, and to where they lived And I sat there among them, stunned, for seven days.

16At the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me: 17#Isa 52.8; 56.10; Jer 6.17; Ezek 33.7–9Mortal, 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#Gen 2.17; Ezek 33.6; Jn 8.21, 24When 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#Ezek 33.3, 9; Acts 18.6; 20.26But 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#Jer 6.21; Ezek 18.24; 33.12, 13Again, 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#v 19; Acts 20.31If, 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.

Ezekiel Isolated and Silenced

22 # v 14 ; Ezek 8.4; Acts 9.6Then the hand of the Lord was upon me there, and he said to me, “Rise up, go out into the valley, and there I will speak with you.” 23#Ezek 1.1, 28So I rose up and went out into the valley, and the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory that I had seen by the River Chebar, and I fell on my face. 24#Ezek 2.2The spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and he spoke with me and said to me: “Go, shut yourself inside your house. 25#Ezek 4.8As for you, mortal, cords shall be placed on you, and you shall be bound with them so that you cannot go out among the people, 26#Ezek 2.5–7; 24.27; Lk 1.20, 22and I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth so that you shall be speechless and unable to reprove them, for they are a rebellious house. 27#vv 9, 11, 26; Ezek 24.27; 33.22But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God’; let those who will hear, hear, and let those who refuse to hear, refuse, for they are a rebellious house.

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Ezekiel 3: NRSVUE

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