They are obstinate and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you are to say to them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says.’
Parallel translations
- WEB The children are impudent and stiff-hearted. I am sending you to them, and you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh.’
- KJV For they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD.
- NKJV For they are impudent and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’
- NASB So I am sending you to those who are impudent and obstinate children, and you shall say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says:’
- NLT They are a stubborn and hard-hearted people. But I am sending you to say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says!’
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The people are impudent and stubborn, yet Ezekiel must declare, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh.' He speaks God's word regardless of their hard hearts.
Overview
Israel's stubbornness does not cancel God's command to speak. The formula 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh' marks the message as divine authority, not human opinion. The prophet's duty is faithfulness in delivery, not guaranteed acceptance. This anticipates Christ and His apostles, who proclaimed God's word faithfully even to resistant hearers.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Ezek 3:7But the house of Israel will be unwilling to listen to you, since they are unwilling to listen to Me. For the whole house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted.
- Jer 5:3O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.
- Jer 6:15Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse,” says the LORD.
- Ps 95:8do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, in the day at Massah in the wilderness,
- Isa 48:4For I knew that you are stubborn; your neck is iron and your forehead is bronze.
- Prov 21:29A wicked man hardens his face, but the upright man makes his way sure.
- 1 Kgs 22:14But Micaiah said, “As surely as the LORD lives, I will speak whatever the LORD tells me.”
- 2 Chr 30:8Now do not stiffen your necks as your fathers did. Submit to the LORD and come to His sanctuary, which He has consecrated forever. Serve the LORD your God, so that His fierce anger will turn away from you.
- Deut 10:16Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and stiffen your necks no more.
- 2 Chr 36:13He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. But Zedekiah stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel.
- Deut 31:27For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you are already rebelling against the LORD while I am still alive, how much more will you rebel after my death!
- Acts 20:26–27Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.
- Jer 3:3Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to be ashamed.
- Matt 10:16Behold, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.
- Jer 8:12Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse, says the LORD.
- Jer 26:2–3“This is what the LORD says: Stand in the courtyard of the house of the LORD and speak all the words I have commanded you to speak to all the cities of Judah who come to worship there. Do not omit a word.
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Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 2:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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