Ezekiel 2-3

New King James Version

Ezekiel Called to Be a Prophet

2 And He said to me, “Son of man, ^(A)stand on your feet, and I will speak to you.” ²Then ^(B)the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard Him who spoke to me. ³And He said to me: “Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has ^(C)rebelled against Me; ^(D)they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day. ⁴^(E)For they are ^[a]impudent and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ ⁵^(F)As for them, whether they hear or whether they refuse—for they are a ^(G)rebellious house—yet they ^(H)will know that a prophet has been among them.

⁶“And you, son of man, ^(I)do not be afraid of them nor be afraid of their words, though ^(J)briers and thorns are with you and you dwell among scorpions; ^(K)do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their looks, ^(L)though they are a rebellious house. ⁷^(M)You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious. ⁸But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and ^(N)eat what I give you.”

⁹Now when I looked, there was ^(O)a hand stretched out to me; and behold, ^(P)a scroll of a book was in it. ¹⁰Then He spread it before me; and there was writing on the inside and on the outside, and written on it were lamentations and mourning and woe.

The Responsibility of the Prophet

3 Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; ^(Q)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 ^(R)ate, and it was in my mouth ^(S)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, ^(T)had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you. ⁷But the house of Israel will not listen to you, ^(U)because they will not listen to Me; ^(V)for all the house of Israel are ^[b]impudent and hard-hearted. ⁸Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. ⁹^(W)Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; ^(X)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, ^(Y)‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse.”

¹²Then ^(Z)the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a great thunderous voice: “Blessed is the ^(AA)glory of the Lord from His place!” ¹³I also heard the ^(AB)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 ^[c]heat of my spirit; but ^(AC)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 ^(AD)I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.

Ezekiel Is a Watchman

¹⁶Now it ^(AE)came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ¹⁷^(AF)“Son of man, I have made you ^(AG)a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them ^(AH)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 ^(AI)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; ^(AJ)but you have delivered your soul.

²⁰“Again, when a ^(AK)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^(AL)Then the hand of the Lord was upon me there, and He said to me, “Arise, go out ^(AM)into the plain, and there I shall talk with you.”

²³So I arose and went out into the plain, and behold, ^(AN)the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory which I ^(AO)saw by the River Chebar; ^(AP)and I fell on my face. ²⁴Then ^(AQ)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 ^(AR)they will put ropes on you and bind you with them, so that you cannot go out among them. ²⁶^(AS)I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be mute and ^(AT)not be ^[d]one to rebuke them, ^(AU)for they are a rebellious house. ²⁷^(AV)But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ^(AW)‘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 2:4 Lit. stiff-faced and hard-hearted sons
Ezekiel 3:7 Lit. strong of forehead
Ezekiel 3:14 Or anger
Ezekiel 3:26 Lit. one who rebukes

Jeremiah 15

New King James Version

The Lord Will Not Relent

15 Then the Lord said to me, ^(A)“Even if ^(B)Moses and ^(C)Samuel stood before Me, My ^[a]mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth. ²And it shall be, if they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord:

^(D)“Such as are for death, to death;
And such as are for the sword, to the sword;
And such as are for the famine, to the famine;
And such as are for the ^(E)captivity, to the captivity.” ’

³“And I will ^(F)appoint over them four forms of destruction,” says the Lord: “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, ^(G)the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. ⁴I will hand them over to ^(H)trouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of ^(I)Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.

⁵“For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem?
Or who will bemoan you?
Or who will turn aside to ask how you are doing?
⁶^(J)You have forsaken Me,” says the Lord,
“You have ^(K)gone backward.
Therefore I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you;
^(L)I am ^[b]weary of relenting!
⁷And I will winnow them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land;
I will ^(M)bereave them of children;
I will destroy My people,
Since they ^(N)do not return from their ways.
⁸Their widows will be increased to Me more than the sand of the seas;
I will bring against them,
Against the mother of the young men,
A plunderer at noonday;
I will cause anguish and terror to fall on them ^(O)suddenly.

⁹“She^(P) languishes who has borne seven;
She has breathed her last;
^(Q)Her sun has gone down
While it was yet day;
She has been ashamed and confounded.
And the remnant of them I will deliver to the sword
Before their enemies,” says the Lord.

Jeremiah’s Dejection

¹⁰^(R)Woe is me, my mother,
That you have borne me,
A man of strife and a man of contention to the whole ^[c]earth!
I have neither lent for interest,
Nor have men lent to me for interest.
Every one of them curses me.

¹¹The Lord said:

“Surely it will be well with your remnant;
Surely I will cause ^(S)the enemy to intercede with you
In the time of adversity and in the time of affliction.
¹²Can anyone break iron,
The northern iron and the bronze?
¹³Your wealth and your treasures
I will give as ^(T)plunder without price,
Because of all your sins,
Throughout your territories.
¹⁴And I will ^[d]make you cross over with your enemies
^(U)Into a land which you do not know;
For a ^(V)fire is kindled in My anger,
Which shall burn upon you.”

¹⁵O Lord, ^(W)You know;
Remember me and ^[e]visit me,
And ^(X)take vengeance for me on my persecutors.
In Your enduring patience, do not take me away.
Know that ^(Y)for Your sake I have suffered rebuke.
¹⁶Your words were found, and I ^(Z)ate them,
And ^(AA)Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart;
For I am called by Your name,
O Lord God of hosts.
¹⁷^(AB)I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers,
Nor did I rejoice;
I sat alone because of Your hand,
For You have filled me with indignation.
¹⁸Why is my ^(AC)pain perpetual
And my wound incurable,
Which refuses to be healed?
Will You surely be to me ^(AD)like an unreliable stream,
As waters that ^[f]fail?

The Lord Reassures Jeremiah

¹⁹Therefore thus says the Lord:

^(AE)“If you return,
Then I will bring you back;
You shall ^(AF)stand before Me;
If you ^(AG)take out the precious from the vile,
You shall be as My mouth.
Let them return to you,
But you must not return to them.
²⁰And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze ^(AH)wall;
And they will fight against you,
But ^(AI)they shall not prevail against you;
For I am with you to save you
And deliver you,” says the Lord.
²¹“I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked,
And I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.”