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Ezekiel 3

ENGWEBEnglish27 verses

1He said to me, Son of man, eat that which you find. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.

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

3He said to me, Son of man, cause your belly to eat, and fill your bowels with this scroll that I give you. Then I ate it; and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

4He said to me, Son of man, go to the house of Israel, and speak my words to them.

5For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel;

6not to many peoples of a strange speech and of a hard language, whose words you can not understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.

7But the house of Israel will not listen to you; for they will not listen to me: for all the house of Israel are obstinate and hard-hearted.

8Behold, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads.

9As an adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead: don’t be afraid of them, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.

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

11Go to them of the captivity, to the children of your people, and speak to them, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.

12Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be Yahweh’s glory from his place.

13I heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, even the noise of a great rushing.

14So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and the hand of Yahweh was strong on me.

15Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel Aviv, that lived by the river Chebar, and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days.

16At the end of seven days, Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,

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

18When I tell the wicked, You shall surely die; and you give him no warning, nor speak 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 your hand.

19Yet if you warn the wicked, and he doesn’t turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.

20Again, when a righteous man does turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die: because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at your hand.

21Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning; and you have delivered your soul.

22The hand of Yahweh was there on me; and he said to me, Arise, go out into the plain, and I will there talk with you.

23Then I arose, and went out into the plain: and behold, Yahweh’s glory stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face.

24Then the 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.

25But you, son of man, behold, they shall lay bands on you, and shall bind you with them, and you shall not go out among them:

26and I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, that you shall be mute, and shall not be to them a reprover; for they are a rebellious house.

27But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: He who hears, let him hear; and he who forbears, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.

Commentary

3:1-11 Ezekiel was to receive the truths of God as the food for his soul, and to feed upon them by faith, and he would be strengthened. Gracious souls can receive those truths of God with delight, which speak terror to the wicked. He must speak all that, and that only, which God spake to him. How can we better speak God's mind than with his words? If disappointed as to his people, he must not be offended. The Ninevites were wrought upon by Jonah's preaching, when Israel was unhumbled and unreformed. We must leave this unto the Divine sovereignty, and say, Lord, thy judgments are a great deep. They will not regard the word of the prophet, for they will not regard the rod of God. Christ promises to strengthen him. He must continue earnest in preaching, whatever the success might be.

CHAPTER 3Eze 3:1-27. Ezekiel Eats the Roll. Is Commissioned to Go to Them of the Captivity and Goes to Tel-abib by the Chebar: Again Beholds the Shekinah Glory: Is Told to Retire to His House, and Only Speak when God Opens His Mouth.1. eat … and … speak—God's messenger must first inwardly appropriate God's truth himself, before he "speaks" it to others (see on [1020]Eze 2:8). Symbolic actions were, when possible and proper, performed outwardly; otherwise, internally and in spiritual vision, the action so narrated making the naked statement more intuitive and impressive by presenting the subject in a concentrated, embodied form.

3. honey for sweetness—Compare Ps 19:10; 119:103; Re 10:9, where, as here in Eze 3:14, the "sweetness" is followed by "bitterness." The former being due to the painful nature of the message; the latter because it was the Lord's service which he was engaged in; and his eating the roll and finding it sweet, implied that, divesting himself of carnal feeling, he made God's will his will, however painful the message that God might require him to announce. The fact that God would be glorified was his greatest pleasure.

3:3 Belly - The mouth is the proper instrument of eating, but when meat is digested, the belly is said to eat. Fill thy bowels - This denotes the fulness of the measure wherewith we should read, meditate, and digest the word of God. Honey - It was sweet to receive things by revelation from God, and so to converse with God. And usually the first part of the ministerial work is pleasant.

5. See Margin, Hebrew, "deep of lip, and heavy of tongue," that is, men speaking an obscure and unintelligible tongue. Even they would have listened to the prophet; but the Jews, though addressed in their own tongue, will not hear him.

6. many people—It would have increased the difficulty had he been sent, not merely to one, but to "many people" differing in tongues, so that the missionary would have needed to acquire a new tongue for addressing each. The after mission of the apostles to many peoples, and the gift of tongues for that end, are foreshadowed (compare 1Co 14:21 with Isa 28:11).had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened—(Mt 11:21, 23).

12. (Ac 8:39). Ezekiel's abode heretofore had not been the most suitable for his work. He, therefore, is guided by the Spirit to Tel-Abib, the chief town of the Jewish colony of captives: there he sat on the ground, "the throne of the miserable" (Ezr 9:3; La 1:1-3), seven days, the usual period for manifesting deep grief (Job 2:13; see Ps 137:1), thus winning their confidence by sympathy in their sorrow. He is accompanied by the cherubim which had been manifested at Chebar (Eze 1:3, 4), after their departure from Jerusalem. They now are heard moving with the "voice of a great rushing (compare Ac 2:2), saying, Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place," that is, moving from the place in which it had been at Chebar, to accompany Ezekiel to his new destination (Eze 9:3); or, "from His place" may rather mean, in His place and manifested "from" it. Though God may seem to have forsaken His temple, He is still in it and will restore His people to it. His glory is "blessed," in opposition to those Jews who spoke evil of Him, as if He had been unjustly rigorous towards their nation [Calvin].

3:12 A voice - An articulate sound, of many angels, attended with the rushing of the wheels, added to the noise of their wings. Blessed - Praised be the gloriously holy and just God. His place - Coming down from heaven.

3:12-21 This mission made the holy angels rejoice. All this was to convince Ezekiel, that the God who sent him had power to bear him out in his work.

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Translations8 · 5

AMHEVG እርሱም፦ የሰው ልጅ ሆይ፥ ያገኘኸውን ብላ፤ ይህን መጽሐፍ ብላ፥ ሄደህም ለእስራኤል ቤት ተናገር፡ አለኝ። አማርኛ ENGNIV And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel.” English BCV ንሱ ኸዓ፥ “ኣታ ወዲ ሰብ፥ ዝረኸብካዮ ብላዕ፤ ነታ መፅሓፍ ብልዓያ፤ ኬድኻ ድማ ንቤት እስራኤል ተዛረቦም” በለኒ። ትግርኛ GAZBIB Inni yommus,“Yaa mucaa namaa! Ati wanta siif kenname nyaadhu! Macaafa maramu kana nyaadhuutii dhaqii namoota Israa'elit… Afaan Oromoo BCV GIZ ወይቤለኒ፦ ወልደ ዕጓለ እመሕያው፡ ብላዕ ዘረከብከ፡ ብላዕ ዛቲ መጽሐፈ፡ ወሑር ንግር ለቤተ እስራኤል። giz GAZGAZ Inni yommus,“Yaa mucaa namaa! Ati wanta siif kenname nyaadhu! Macaafa maramu kana nyaadhuutii dhaqii namoota Israa'elit… Afaan Oromoo BCV aksum ንሱ ኸዓ፥ “ኣታ ወዲ ሰብ፥ ዝረኸብካዮ ብላዕ፤ ነታ መፅሓፍ ብልዓያ፤ ኬድኻ ድማ ንቤት እስራኤል ተዛረቦም” በለኒ። ትግርኛ AMHNIV እርሱም፣ “የሰው ልጅ ሆይ፤ በፊትህ ያለውን ብላ፤ ይህን ጥቅልል መጽሐፍ ብላና ሄደህ ለእስራኤል ቤት ተናገር” አለኝ። አማርኛ