Ezekiel 3

Then he said to me, "Son of man, eat what is in front of you. Eat this scroll, then go and speak to the people of Israel."

1Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.

Note"Son of man" translates a Hebrew phrase that means simply "human being" or "mortal"; it marks Ezekiel out as an ordinary man over against the one speaking to him, and it is how God addresses him more than ninety times in this book. A scroll was the book of the period: a long sheet of papyrus or prepared animal skin, written on and rolled up. The previous chapter described this one as written on both sides (unusual, since scrolls were normally written on one) and filled with words of lament and mourning.

2So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.

2So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll.

3He said to me, "Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you, and fill your stomach with it." So I ate it, and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey.

3And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.

4Then he said to me, "Son of man, go now to the people of Israel and speak my words to them.

4And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them.

5You are not being sent to a people whose speech is strange to you and whose language is hard to learn. You are being sent to the people of Israel.

5For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel;

6You are not being sent to many nations with strange speech and hard languages, whose words you could not understand. If I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you.

6Not to many people of a strange speech and of an hard language, whose words thou canst not understand. Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee.

7But the people of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to me. All the people of Israel are stubborn and hard-hearted.

7But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted.

NoteThe Hebrew reads literally "hard of forehead and hard of heart." In Hebrew usage the heart is the seat of thinking, memory and will, nearer to "mind" than to "feelings", so a hard heart means a fixed, unpersuadable judgment rather than an absence of emotion. "Hard forehead" is the brazen face that will not show shame; the King James "impudent" carried that stronger sense of shamelessness in 1611.

8Look, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads.

8Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads.

9I have made your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them, and do not lose your nerve when they glare at you, even though they are a people who rebel."

9As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.

NoteThe King James "adamant" is an old name for an exceptionally hard stone or gem, not a specific mineral. Flint is the stone ancient toolmakers chipped into knives and arrowheads, and it stood proverbially for the hardest thing known.

10Then he said to me, "Son of man, listen carefully to every word I speak to you, and take it into your heart.

10Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears.

11Now go to your own people, the ones taken away as prisoners. Speak to them and tell them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says,' whether they listen or refuse to listen."

11And go, get thee to them of the captivity, unto the children of thy people, and speak unto them, and tell them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.

NoteThe exiles are Judeans deported to Babylonia after Babylon captured Jerusalem in 597 BC and carried off the king, the court, and thousands of leading citizens, craftsmen and priests. Ezekiel, a priest, was among them. Jerusalem itself was still standing at this point and would not be destroyed for about another ten years. Where the text prints LORD or GOD in capitals, it stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants often written YHWH, which Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud; "Lord GOD" here renders a double form, roughly "my Master, YHWH."

12Then the Spirit lifted me up, and behind me I heard a loud rumbling sound, saying, "Blessed be the glory of the LORD in the place where he dwells!"

12Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the LORD from his place.

NoteThe Hebrew word translated "Blessed" (barukh) differs by a single letter from a word meaning "when it rose" (berum). Many readers take the line not as a shout of praise but as describing the sound made as the glory of the LORD rose from its place. The written consonants allow either reading, and the ambiguity is genuine.

13It was 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.

13I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels over against them, and a noise of a great rushing.

NoteThe living creatures and the wheels are from the vision Ezekiel describes in chapter 1: four winged figures, each with a wheel beside it, supporting the throne-like appearance of God's glory.

14So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away. I went feeling bitter and angry inside, and the hand of the LORD lay heavy on me.

14So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the LORD was strong upon me.

Note"The hand of the LORD" upon a prophet is a standard idiom for being seized and driven by divine power, pressure and compulsion, not comfort or protection. "The heat of my spirit" is the ordinary Hebrew idiom for hot anger.

15Then I came to the exiles who lived at Tel-abib by the Kebar River. I sat where they sat, and I stayed there among them for seven days, stunned.

15Then I came to them of the captivity at Telabib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.

NoteTel-abib was one of the settlements where the deportees from Judah were placed in Babylonia; the name appears to come from an Akkadian phrase meaning "mound of the flood," that is, a ruin-heap left by flooding. The Kebar was not a natural river but one of the great irrigation canals branching off the Euphrates, near the city of Nippur. Seven days was the customary period of mourning for the dead, and sitting silent among mourners for seven days was a recognized ritual of grief, not merely a pause.

16At the end of the seven days, the word of the LORD came to me. He said:

16And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

17"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel. So listen to the word I speak, and give them my warning.

17Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

NoteA watchman was the sentry posted on the city wall or in a tower to spot an approaching army or messenger and sound the alarm. He was held answerable if he saw the danger and failed to give the signal. The verses that follow work out that specific legal liability.

18Suppose I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him. You do not speak up to turn him away from his wicked path and save his life. That wicked man will die because of his sin, but I will hold you responsible for his death.

18When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

Note"I will hold you responsible for his death" renders a legal formula, literally "his blood I will require from your hand." It is the language of bloodguilt in Israelite law: the person named is treated as liable for a death and can be required to answer for it with his own life.

19But if you do warn the wicked man, and he does not turn from his wickedness or his wicked path, he will die because of his sin, but you will have saved your own life.

19Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

20Again, suppose a righteous man turns away from doing right and does wrong, and I put something in his path that trips him up. He will die. Because you did not warn him, he will die in his sin, and the right things he did will not be remembered. But I will hold you responsible for his death.

20Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "something in his path that trips him up" is an ordinary physical obstacle (a stone or block left where someone will stumble on it) used here as an image. The text does not say what the obstacle is.

21But if you do warn the righteous man not to sin, and he does not sin, he will certainly live, because he took the warning. And you will have saved your own life."

21Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.

22The hand of the LORD was on me there, and he said to me, "Get up and go out to the valley, and I will speak with you there."

22And the hand of the LORD was there upon me; and he said unto me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee.

NoteThe Hebrew word is biq'ah, a broad flat stretch of open ground lying lower than the land around it; older translations render it "plain," newer ones "valley." It means level open country outside the settlement, not a narrow ravine.

23So I got up and went out to the valley. The glory of the LORD was standing there, like the glory I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell face down on the ground.

23Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and, behold, the glory of the LORD stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river of Chebar: and I fell on my face.

24Then the Spirit came into me and set me on my feet. He spoke with me and said, "Go, shut yourself inside your house.

24Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet, and spake with me, and said unto me, Go, shut thyself within thine house.

NoteThe Hebrew word ruach covers wind, breath and spirit alike; it is the same word used for whatever lifted Ezekiel up in verses 12 and 14.

25As for you, son of man, people will put ropes on you and tie you up, so that you cannot go out among them.

25But thou, O son of man, behold, they shall put bands upon thee, and shall bind thee with them, and thou shalt not go out among them:

NoteWhether the ropes are literal, neighbors physically restraining him, or a figure for a constraint laid on him by God has been argued over for a long time. The Hebrew simply states it, without explaining who "they" are or why.

26I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, so that you will be silent and unable to correct them, for they are a people who rebel.

26And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house.

NoteThe King James "reprover" is the person who states the case against wrongdoing in public, the role played in a legal dispute at the town gate. Being struck mute removes Ezekiel from that role: he cannot bring the charge. Verse 27 makes the silence selective rather than total.

27But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you will say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says.' Whoever will listen, let him listen; and whoever refuses, let him refuse. For they are a people who rebel."

27But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.