Ezekiel 3:22-27

Isolated and Silenced

3:22 The hand ¹  of the Lord rested on me there, and he said to me, “Get up, go out to the valley, ²  and I will speak with you there.” 3:23 So I got up and went out to the valley, and the glory of the Lord was standing there, just like the glory I had seen by the Kebar River, ³  and I threw myself face down.

3:24 Then a wind ⁴  came into me and stood me on my feet. The Lord ⁵  spoke to me and said, “Go shut yourself in your house. 3:25 As for you, son of man, they will put ropes on you and tie you up with them, so you cannot go out among them. 3:26 I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be silent and unable to reprove ⁶  them, for they are a rebellious house. 3:27 But when I speak with you, I will loosen your tongue ⁷  and you must say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says.’ Those who listen will listen, but the indifferent will refuse, ⁸  for they are a rebellious house.

[3:22]  ¹ tn Or “power.”

[3:22]  ² sn Ezekiel had another vision at this location, recounted in Ezek 37.

[3:23]  ³ tn Or “canal.”

[3:24]  ⁴ tn See the note on “wind” in 2:2.

[3:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “he.”

[3:26]  ⁶ tn Heb “you will not be to them a reprover.” In Isa 29:21 and Amos 5:10 “a reprover” issued rebuke at the city gate.

[3:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “open your mouth.”

[3:27]  ⁸ tn Heb “the listener will listen, the refuser will refuse.” Because the word for listening can also mean obeying, the nuance may be that the obedient will listen, or that the one who listens will obey. Also, although the verbs are not jussive as pointed in the MT, some translate them with a volitive sense: “the one who listens – let that one listen, the one who refuses – let that one refuse.”