Ezekiel3
New Living Translation
1The voice said to me, “Son of man, eat what I am giving you—eat this scroll! Then go and give its message to the people of Israel.”
2So I opened my mouth, and he fed me the scroll.
3“Fill your stomach with this,” he said. And when I ate it, it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.
4Then he said, “Son of man, go to the people of Israel and give them my messages.
5I am not sending you to a foreign people whose language you cannot understand.
6No, I am not sending you to people with strange and difficult speech. If I did, they would listen!
7But the people of Israel won’t listen to you any more than they listen to me! For the whole lot of them are hard-hearted and stubborn.
8But look, I have made you as obstinate and hard-hearted as they are.
9I have made your forehead as hard as the hardest rock! So don’t be afraid of them or fear their angry looks, even though they are rebels.”
10Then he added, “Son of man, let all my words sink deep into your own heart first. Listen to them carefully for yourself.
11Then go to your people in exile and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says!’ Do this whether they listen to you or not.”
12Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard a loud rumbling sound behind me. (May the glory of the Lord be praised in his place!)
13It was the sound of the wings of the living beings as they brushed against each other and the rumbling of their wheels beneath them.
14The Spirit lifted me up and took me away. I went in bitterness and turmoil, but the Lord’s hold on me was strong.
15Then I came to the colony of Judean exiles in Tel-abib, beside the Kebar River. I was overwhelmed and sat among them for seven days.
16After seven days the Lord gave me a message. He said,
17“Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for Israel. Whenever you receive a message from me, warn people immediately.
18If I warn the wicked, saying, ‘You are under the penalty of death,’ but you fail to deliver the warning, they will die in their sins. And I will hold you responsible for their deaths.
19If you warn them and they refuse to repent and keep on sinning, they will die in their sins. But you will have saved yourself because you obeyed me.
20“If righteous people turn away from their righteous behavior and ignore the obstacles I put in their way, they will die. And if you do not warn them, they will die in their sins. None of their righteous acts will be remembered, and I will hold you responsible for their deaths.
21But if you warn righteous people not to sin and they listen to you and do not sin, they will live, and you will have saved yourself, too.”
22Then the Lord took hold of me and said, “Get up and go out into the valley, and I will speak to you there.”
23So I got up and went, and there I saw the glory of the Lord, just as I had seen in my first vision by the Kebar River. And I fell face down on the ground.
24Then the Spirit came into me and set me on my feet. He spoke to me and said, “Go to your house and shut yourself in.
25There, son of man, you will be tied with ropes so you cannot go out among the people.
26And I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be speechless and unable to rebuke them, for they are rebels.
27But when I give you a message, I will loosen your tongue and let you speak. Then you will say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says!’ Those who choose to listen will listen, but those who refuse will refuse, for they are rebels.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Ezekiel 3.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The preparation of the prophet for his work. (1-11). His office, as that of a watchman. (12-21). The restraining and restoring his speech. (22-27).
vv1-11
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.
vv12-21
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. He was overwhelmed with grief for the sins and miseries of his people, and overpowered by the glory of the vision he had seen. And however retirement, meditation, and communion with God may be sweet, the servant of the Lord must prepare to serve his generation. The Lord told the prophet he had appointed him a watchman to the house of Israel. If we warn the wicked, we are not chargeable with their ruin. Though such passages refer to the national covenant made with Israel, they are equally to be applied to the final state of all men under every dispensation. We are not only to encourage and comfort those who appear to be righteous, but they are to be warned, for many have grown high-minded and secure, have fallen, and even died in their sins. Surely then the hearers of the gospel should desire warnings, and even reproofs.
vv22-27
Let us own ourselves for ever indebted to the mediation of Christ, for the blessed intercourse between God and man; and a true believer will say, I am never less alone than when thus alone. When the Lord opened Ezekiel's mouth, he was to deliver his message boldly, to place life and death, the blessing and the curse, before the people, and leave them to their choice.
Key Words
אָמַר: to say (used with great latitude)
בֵּן: a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etc., (like father or brother), etc.)
אָדָם: ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species, mankind, etc.)
אָכַל: to eat (literally or figuratively)
אֲשֶׁר: who, which, what, that; also (as an adverb and a conjunction) when, where, how, because, in order that, etc.
מָצָא: properly, to come forth to, i.e. appear or exist; transitively, to attain, i.e. find or acquire; figuratively, to occur, meet or be present
זֶה: the masculine demonstrative pronoun, this or that
מְגִלָּה: a roll
יָלַךְ: to walk (literally or figuratively); causatively, to carry (in various senses)
דָבַר: perhaps properly, to arrange; but used figuratively (of words), to speak; rarely (in a destructive sense) to subdue
Cross References
Ezekiel 3John's consumption of the book roll, tasting sweet then bitter, mirrors Ezekiel's visionary experience.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Jeremiah also speaks of finding and eating God's words as his joy and delight.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin
Jesus highlights that foreign cities like Tyre and Sidon would have repented, unlike obstinate Israel.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Messianic parallel of setting one's face like a flint against opposition and rejection.
Supported by JFB
The formal restatement of Ezekiel's solemn appointment and duty as a watchman to Israel.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Jesus warns that the world rejects His servants because it has already rejected Him.
Supported by JFB
God makes Jeremiah an iron pillar and bronze wall against the rebellious house.
Supported by JFB
Paul declares he is innocent of the blood of all men because he did not shrink from warning.
Supported by JFB
Expounds on the righteous man turning from his righteousness and dying in his sins.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Parallel instance of the Holy Spirit physically snatching or carrying away a prophet.
Supported by JFB
Seven days of silent, astonished sitting as a traditional period of deep mourning and sympathy.
Supported by JFB
The direct return of the Shekinah glory of Jehovah, which Ezekiel first saw by the Chebar.
Supported by JFB
The temporal fulfillment where God physically opens Ezekiel's mouth to speak to the refugees.
Supported by JFB
The symbolic laying of bands or cords upon Ezekiel, restricting his physical movement.
Supported by JFB