Ezekiel’s Prophetic Commission

Chapter 2

¹And He said to me, “O mortal, stand up on your feet that I may speak to you.” ²As He spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me upon my feet; and I heard what was being spoken to me. ³He said to me, “O mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, that nation of rebels, who have rebelled against Me.—They as well as their fathers have defied Me to this very day; ⁴for the sons are brazen of face and stubborn of heart. I send you to them, and you shall say to them: ‘Thus said the Lord God’—⁵whether they listen or not, for they are a rebellious breed—that they may know that there was a prophet among them.

⁶“And you, mortal, do not fear them and do not fear their words, though thistles and thorns press against you, and you sit upon scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words and do not be dismayed by them, though they are a rebellious breed; ⁷but speak My words to them, whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious.

⁸“And you, mortal, heed what I say to you: Do not be rebellious like that rebellious breed. Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you.” ⁹As I looked, there was a hand stretched out to me, holding a written scroll. ¹⁰He unrolled it before me, and it was inscribed on both the front and the back; on it were written lamentations, dirges, and woes.

Chapter 3

¹He said to me, “Mortal, eat what is offered you; eat this scroll, and go speak to the House of Israel.” ²So I opened my mouth, and He gave me this scroll to eat, ³as He said to me, “Mortal, feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll that I give you.” I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey to me.

⁴Then He said to me, “Mortal, go to the House of Israel and repeat My very words to them. ⁵For you are sent, not to a people of unintelligible speech and difficult language, but to the House of Israel—⁶not to the many peoples of unintelligible speech and difficult language, whose talk you cannot understand. If I sent you to them, they would listen to you. ⁷But the House of Israel will refuse to listen to you, for they refuse to listen to Me; for the whole House of Israel are brazen of forehead and stubborn of heart. ⁸But I will make your face as hard as theirs, and your forehead as brazen as theirs. ⁹I will make your forehead like adamant, harder than flint. Do not fear them, and do not be dismayed by them, though they are a rebellious breed.”

¹⁰Then He said to me: “Mortal, listen with your ears and receive into your mind all the words that I speak to you. ¹¹Go to your people, the exile community, and speak to them. Say to them: Thus says the Lord God—whether they listen or not.” ¹²Then a spirit carried me away, and behind me I heard a great roaring sound: “Blessed is the Presence of the Lord, in His place,” ¹³with the sound of the wings of the creatures beating against one another, and the sound of the wheels beside them—a great roaring sound. ¹⁴A spirit seized me and carried me away. I went in bitterness, in the fury of my spirit, while the hand of the Lord was strong upon me. ¹⁵And I came to the exile community that dwelt in Tel Abib by the Chebar Canal, and I remained where they dwelt. And for seven days I sat there stunned among them.

¹⁶After those seven days, the word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁷“O mortal, I appoint you watchman for the House of Israel; and when you hear a word from My mouth, you must warn them for Me. ¹⁸If I say to a wicked man, ‘You shall die,’ and you do not warn him—you do not speak to warn the wicked man of his wicked course in order to save his life—he, the wicked man, shall die for his iniquity, but I will require a reckoning for his blood from you. ¹⁹But if you do warn the wicked man, and he does not turn back from his wickedness and his wicked course, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have saved your own life. ²⁰Again, if a righteous man abandons his righteousness and does wrong, when I put a stumbling block before him, he shall die. He shall die for his sins; the righteous deeds that he did shall not be remembered; but because you did not warn him, I will require a reckoning for his blood from you. ²¹If, however, you warn the righteous man not to sin, and he, the righteous, does not sin, he shall live because he took warning, and you will have saved your own life.”

²²Then the hand of the Lord came upon me there, and He said to me, “Arise, go out to the valley, and there I will speak with you.” ²³I arose and went out to the valley, and there stood the Presence of the Lord, like the Presence that I had seen at the Chebar Canal; and I flung myself down on my face. ²⁴And a spirit entered into me and set me upon my feet. And He spoke to me, and said to me: “Go, shut yourself up in your house. ²⁵As for you, O mortal, cords have been placed upon you, and you have been bound with them, and you shall not go out among them.^{a 26}And I will make your tongue cleave to your palate, and you shall be dumb; you shall not be a reprover to them, for they are a rebellious breed. ²⁷But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God!’ He who listens will listen, and he who does not will not—for they are a rebellious breed.”