The Vision of the Scroll

2 He said to me: “O mortal,^[a] stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you.”^{(A) 2} And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.^{(B) 3} He said to me, “Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation^[b] of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day.^{(C) 4} The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’^{(D) 5} Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.^{(E) 6} And you, O mortal, do not be afraid of them, and do not be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns surround you and you live among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words, and do not be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.^{(F) 7} You shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house.^(G)

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.”^{(H) 9} I looked, and a hand was stretched out to me, and a written scroll was in it.^{(I) 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.