Chapter 3
1 He said to me: Son of man, eat what is in front of you. Eat this scroll, and then go forth to speak to the house of Israel. 2 Therefore, I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. 3 He said to me: Son of man, eat this scroll that I have given you, and eat your fill. Then I consumed it, and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey.
4 He then said to me: Son of man, go now to the house of Israel and deliver my message to them. 5 For you are not being sent to a people that speaks a difficult and barbaric language, but to the house of Israel. 6 I am not sending you to great nations, whose speech you would not be able to comprehend, although they would listen to what you had to say.
7 However, the house of Israel will not listen to you because it would not listen to me. The whole house of Israel is defiant and obstinate in heart. 8 But I will make you as defiant and obstinate as they are. 9 I will make your resolve as hard as a diamond. I have made your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not fear them, or be concerned about their appearance, for they are a rebellious house.
10 He went on: Listen carefully, son of man, to all my words. Receive them into your heart and hear them with your ears. 11 Then go to your countrymen in exile and say to them, “Thus says the Lord,” whether they listen or refuse to listen.
12 Then a Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the sound of loud rumbling as the glory of the Lord rose from its place: 13 the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against one another, and the sound of the wheels beside them, a fierce rumbling sound. 14 The Spirit lifted me up and carried me away, and I departed in bitterness and anger, as the hand of the Lord rested heavily upon me. 15 I came to the exiles at Tel-abib[a] who lived by the River Chebar, and for seven days I sat among them in a state of consternation.
16 The Prophet as Sentry. At the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me: 17 Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them my warning. 18 If I say to a wicked man, “You will surely die,” and you fail to warn him about this or do not advise him to cease his wicked conduct and thereby save his life, the wicked man will die because of his iniquity, but I will hold you responsible for his death. 19 But if you have warned him and he continues to persist in his evil ways, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved your life.
20 Again, if a virtuous man ceases to be virtuous and does wrong, and I set a trap for him, he will die because you failed to warn him. He will die for his sin, and his virtuous deeds will no longer be remembered. However, I will hold you responsible for his death because you did not warn him. 21 However, if you have warned an upright man not to sin and he does not sin, then he will have saved his life because he heeded your warning, and you will have saved your life.
22 Ezekiel Struck Dumb.[b]While I was there, the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he said to me: Rise up, go out into the valley, and there I will speak to you. 23 I arose, and when went out to the valley, the glory of the Lord was there, like the glory I had seen by the River Chebar, and I fell prostrate on the ground.
24 Then a Spirit entered into me and raised me to my feet, and he spoke with me and said: Go forth and shut yourself up in your house. 25 You will be tied and bound with ropes, O son of man, so that you cannot go out among the people. 26 I will make your tongue stick to your palate so that you will become dumb and be unable to reprove them, for they are a rebellious people. 27 But when I have spoken to you, I will open your mouth, and you will say to them, “This is what the Lord God said.” If anyone wishes to listen, he may listen. If anyone refuses to listen, he may refuse. For they are a rebellious house.
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 3:15 Tel-abib: an unidentified place in Babylonia; the name means “hill of the ear of grain.”
- Ezekiel 3:22 In words all the more impressive because preceded by mimed scenes, Ezekiel foretells the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. A first series of such scenes (Ezek 4:1-3, 9-17; 5:1-17) must date from the very year of the prophet’s call. A second must be closer to the moment of the fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C.