Ezekiel 3:4-14

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.