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said to me, “Son of man, eat what is given to you. Eat this scroll, then go and speak to the house of Israel.” 2 So I opened my mouth, and He gave me the scroll to eat.
3 Then He said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.” So I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.
4 He said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak My words to them. 5 For you are not being sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language, but to the house of Israel, 6 not too many peoples of obscure speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you. 7 But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me. For the whole house of Israel hard-headed and hard-hearted. 8 But I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. 9 I have made your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or be dismayed by the look on their faces, though they are a rebellious house.”
10 And He said to me, “Son of man, listen with your ears and take to heart all the words I speak to you. 11 Go now to your own people, to the exiles, and speak to them. Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says', whether they listen, or whether they refuse to listen.”
12 Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a great roaring sound: “Blessed be the glory of the Lord in His place,” 13 and the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against one another, and the sound of the wheels beside them, a great rumbling sound. 14 So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, while the hand of the Lord was strong upon me. 15 I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who were living by the Chebar River. Then I sat among them there, overwhelmed, for seven days.
16 At the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me: 17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. When you hear a word from My mouth, you must warn them for Me. 18 If I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die', and you do not warn him, or if you do not speak out to turn him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his iniquity, and I will hold you responsible for his blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his iniquity, but you will have saved your own life.”
20 “Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. Since you did not warn him, he will die in his sins, and the righteous deeds he did will not be remembered, and I will hold you responsible for his blood. 21 But if you warn the righteous man that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning, and you will have saved your own life.”
22 Then the hand of the Lord was upon me there, and He said to me, “Get up and go out onto the plain, and I will speak with you there.” 23 So I got up and went out onto the plain. The glory of the Lord was standing there, like the glory I had seen by the Chebar River, and I fell facedown.
24 Then the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet. He spoke to me and said, “Go, shut yourself inside your house. 25 And as for you, son of man, they will put ropes on you and bind you with them, so you cannot go out among the people. 26 I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, so you will be mute and unable to rebuke them, for they are a rebellious house. 27 But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says’. He who will hear, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.”