8. Look, I have made your face as hard as their faces and your forehead as hard as their foreheads.
9. I have made your forehead like a diamond, harder than flint. Don’t be afraid of them or discouraged by the look on their faces, even though they are a rebellious house.”
10. Next He said to me: “Son of man, listen carefully to all My words that I speak to you and take them to heart.
11. Go to your people, the exiles, and speak to them. Tell them, ‘This is what the Lord God says,’ whether they listen or refuse to listen.”
12. The Spirit then lifted me up, and I heard a great rumbling sound behind me — praise the glory of the Lord in His place! —
13. with the sound of the living creatures’ wings brushing against each other and the sound of the wheels beside them, a great rumbling sound.
14. So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away. I left in bitterness and in an angry spirit, and the Lord’s hand was on me powerfully.
15. I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who were living by the Chebar Canal, and I sat there among them stunned for seven days.
16. Now at the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me:
17. “Son of man, I have made you a watchman over the house of Israel. When you hear a word from My mouth, give them a warning from Me.
18. If I say to the wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ but you do not warn him — you don’t speak out to warn him about his wicked way in order to save his life — that wicked person will die for his iniquity. Yet I will hold you responsible for his blood.
19. But if you warn a wicked person and he does not turn from his wickedness or his wicked way, he will die for his iniquity, but you will have saved your life.
20. Now if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity, and I put a stumbling block in front of him, he will die. If you did not warn him, he will die because of his sin and the righteous acts he did will not be remembered. Yet I will hold you responsible for his blood.
21. But if you warn the righteous person that he should not sin, and he does not sin, he will indeed live because he listened to your warning, and you will have saved your life.”
22. Then the hand of the Lord was on me there, and He said to me, “Get up, go out to the plain, and I will speak with you there.”