Ezekiel 3

New King James Version

The Responsibility of the Prophet

3 Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; ^(A)eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” ²So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll.

³And He said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.” So I ^(B)ate, and it was in my mouth ^(C)like honey in sweetness.

⁴Then He said to me: “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them. ⁵For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel, ⁶not to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, ^(D)had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you. ⁷But the house of Israel will not listen to you, ^(E)because they will not listen to Me; ^(F)for all the house of Israel are ^[a]impudent and hard-hearted. ⁸Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. ⁹^(G)Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; ^(H)do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.”

¹⁰Moreover He said to me: “Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears. ¹¹And go, get to the captives, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, ^(I)‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse.”

¹²Then ^(J)the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a great thunderous voice: “Blessed is the ^(K)glory of the Lord from His place!” ¹³I also heard the ^(L)noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, and a great thunderous noise. ¹⁴So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the ^[b]heat of my spirit; but ^(M)the hand of the Lord was strong upon me. ¹⁵Then I came to the captives at Tel Abib, who dwelt by the River Chebar; and ^(N)I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.

Ezekiel Is a Watchman

¹⁶Now it ^(O)came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ¹⁷^(P)“Son of man, I have made you ^(Q)a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them ^(R)warning from Me: ¹⁸When I say to 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, that same wicked man ^(S)shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. ¹⁹Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; ^(T)but you have delivered your soul.

²⁰“Again, when a ^(U)righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. ²¹Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; also you will have delivered your soul.”

²²^(V)Then the hand of the Lord was upon me there, and He said to me, “Arise, go out ^(W)into the plain, and there I shall talk with you.”

²³So I arose and went out into the plain, and behold, ^(X)the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory which I ^(Y)saw by the River Chebar; ^(Z)and I fell on my face. ²⁴Then ^(AA)the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet, and spoke with me and said to me: “Go, shut yourself inside your house. ²⁵And you, O son of man, surely ^(AB)they will put ropes on you and bind you with them, so that you cannot go out among them. ²⁶^(AC)I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be mute and ^(AD)not be ^[c]one to rebuke them, ^(AE)for they are a rebellious house. ²⁷^(AF)But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ^(AG)‘Thus says the Lord God.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.

Footnotes

Ezekiel 3:7 Lit. strong of forehead
Ezekiel 3:14 Or anger
Ezekiel 3:26 Lit. one who rebukes

Jeremiah 23

New King James Version

The Branch of Righteousness

23 “Woe ^(A)to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” says the Lord. ²Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel against the shepherds who feed My people: “You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. ^(B)Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings,” says the Lord. ³“But ^(C)I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. ⁴I will set up ^(D)shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking,” says the Lord.

⁵“Behold, ^(E)the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;
A King shall reign and ^[a]prosper,
^(F)And execute ^[b]judgment and righteousness in the ^[c]earth.
⁶^(G)In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel ^(H)will dwell safely;
Now ^(I)this is His name by which He will be called:

^[d]THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

⁷“Therefore, behold, ^(J)the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ ⁸but, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country ^(K)and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ And they shall dwell in their own ^(L)land.”

False Prophets and Empty Oracles

⁹My heart within me is broken
Because of the prophets;
^(M)All my bones shake.
I am like a drunken man,
And like a man whom wine has overcome,
Because of the Lord,
And because of His holy words.
¹⁰For ^(N)the land is full of adulterers;
For ^(O)because of a curse the land mourns.
^(P)The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up.
Their course of life is evil,
And their might is not right.

¹¹“For ^(Q)both prophet and priest are profane;
Yes, ^(R)in My house I have found their wickedness,” says the Lord.
¹²“Therefore^(S) their way shall be to them
Like slippery ways;
In the darkness they shall be driven on
And fall in them;
For I ^(T)will bring disaster on them,
The year of their punishment,” says the Lord.
¹³“And I have seen ^[e]folly in the prophets of Samaria:
^(U)They prophesied by Baal
And ^(V)caused My people Israel to err.
¹⁴Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem:
^(W)They commit adultery and walk in lies;
They also ^(X)strengthen the hands of evildoers,
So that no one turns back from his wickedness.
All of them are like ^(Y)Sodom to Me,
And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

¹⁵“Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets:

‘Behold, I will feed them with ^(Z)wormwood,
And make them drink the water of gall;
For from the prophets of Jerusalem
^[f]Profaneness has gone out into all the land.’ ”

¹⁶Thus says the Lord of hosts:

“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you.
They make you worthless;
^(AA)They speak a vision of their own heart,
Not from the mouth of the Lord.
¹⁷They continually say to those who despise Me,
‘The Lord has said, ^(AB)“You shall have peace” ’;
And to everyone who ^(AC)walks according to the ^[g]dictates of his own heart, they say,
^(AD)‘No evil shall come upon you.’ ”

¹⁸For ^(AE)who has stood in the counsel of the Lord,
And has perceived and heard His word?
Who has marked His word and heard it?
¹⁹Behold, a ^(AF)whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury—
A violent whirlwind!
It will fall violently on the head of the wicked.
²⁰The ^(AG)anger of the Lord will not turn back
Until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart.
^(AH)In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.

²¹“I^(AI) have not sent these prophets, yet they ran.
I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
²²But if they had stood in My counsel,
And had caused My people to hear My words,
Then they would have ^(AJ)turned them from their evil way
And from the evil of their doings.

²³“Am I a God near at hand,” says the Lord,
“And not a God afar off?
²⁴Can anyone ^(AK)hide himself in secret places,
So I shall not see him?” says the Lord;
^(AL)“Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord.

²⁵“I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ ²⁶How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, ²⁷who try to make My people forget My name by their dreams which everyone tells his neighbor, ^(AM)as their fathers forgot My name for Baal.

²⁸“The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream;
And he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully.
What is the chaff to the wheat?” says the Lord.
²⁹“Is not My word like a ^(AN)fire?” says the Lord,
“And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

³⁰“Therefore behold, ^(AO)I am against the prophets,” says the Lord, “who steal My words every one from his neighbor. ³¹Behold, I am ^(AP)against the prophets,” says the Lord, “who use their tongues and say, ‘He says.’ ³²Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” says the Lord, “and tell them, and cause My people to err by their ^(AQ)lies and by ^(AR)their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore they shall not ^(AS)profit this people at all,” says the Lord.

³³“So when these people or the prophet or the priest ask you, saying, ‘What is ^(AT)the ^[h]oracle of the Lord?’ you shall then say to them, ^[i]‘What oracle?’ I will even forsake you,” says the Lord. ³⁴“And as for the prophet and the priest and the people who say, ‘The ^[j]oracle of the Lord!’ I will even punish that man and his house. ³⁵Thus every one of you shall say to his neighbor, and every one to his brother, ‘What has the Lord answered?’ and, ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ ³⁶And the ^[k]oracle of the Lord you shall mention no more. For every man’s word will be his oracle, for you have ^(AU)perverted the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God. ³⁷Thus you shall say to the prophet, ‘What has the Lord answered you?’ and, ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ ³⁸But since you say, ‘The ^[l]oracle of the Lord!’ therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Because you say this word, “The oracle of the Lord!” and I have sent to you, saying, “Do not say, ‘The oracle of the Lord!’ ” ³⁹therefore behold, I, even I, ^(AV)will utterly forget you and forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and will cast you out of My presence. ⁴⁰And I will bring ^(AW)an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual ^(AX)shame, which shall not be forgotten.’ ”