⁸ “But you, mortal, hear what I say to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”^{(A) 9} I looked, and a hand was stretched out to me, and a written scroll was in it.^{(B) 10} He spread it before me; it had writing on the front and on the back, and written on it were words of lamentation and mourning and woe.

3 He said to me, “O mortal, eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”^{(C) 2} So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. ³ He said to me, “Mortal, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey.^(D)

⁴ He said to me, “Mortal, go to the house of Israel and speak my very words to them. ⁵ For you are not sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language but to the house of Israel, ⁶ not to many peoples of obscure speech and difficult language whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.^{(E) 7} But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me, because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.^{(F) 8} See, I have made your face hard against their faces and your forehead hard against their foreheads. ⁹ Like the hardest stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not fear them or be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.”^{(G) 10} He said to me, “Mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears; ¹¹ then go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them. Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear or refuse to hear.”^(H)