For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech or difficult language, but to the house of Israel,
Parallel translations
- WEB For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel;
- KJV For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel;
- BSB For you are not being sent to a people of unfamiliar speech or difficult language, but to the house of Israel—
- NKJV For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel,
- NLT I am not sending you to a foreign people whose language you cannot understand.
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
Ezekiel is sent not to a foreign people of strange speech but to Israel. His own people should be the most ready to understand.
Overview
God highlights that Ezekiel faces no language barrier, only a heart barrier. Israel speaks his tongue and possesses God's covenant, so they are without excuse. This sets up the tragic irony that those nearest to God resist Him most. It exposes that the deepest obstacle to God's word is not comprehension but a rebellious heart.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Jonah 1:2“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.”
- Isa 33:19You will no longer see the fierce people, a people of a deep speech that you can’t comprehend, with a strange language that you can’t understand.
- Jonah 3:2–4“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you.”
- Isa 28:11But he will speak to this nation with stammering lips and in another language;
- Acts 26:17–18delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you,
- Ps 81:5He appointed it in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out over the land of Egypt, I heard a language that I didn’t know.
- Ezek 3:6not to many peoples of a strange speech and of a hard language, whose words you can not understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 3:5 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.