Ezekiel 3:5-9

3:5 For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech ¹  and difficult language, ²  but ³  to the house of Israel – 3:6 not to many peoples of unintelligible speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand ⁴  – surely if ⁵  I had sent you to them, they would listen to you! 3:7 But the house of Israel is unwilling to listen to you, ⁶  because they are not willing to listen to me, ⁷  for the whole house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted. ⁸ 

3:8 “I have made your face adamant ⁹  to match their faces, and your forehead hard to match their foreheads. 3:9 I have made your forehead harder than flint – like diamond! ¹⁰  Do not fear them or be terrified of the looks they give you, ¹¹  for they are a rebellious house.”

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¹ tn Heb “deep of lip” (in the sense of incomprehensible).

² tn Heb “heavy of tongue.” Similar language occurs in Exod 4:10; Isa 33:19.

³ tn The conjunction “but” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied from the context.

⁴ tn Heb “hear.”

⁵ tc The MT reads “if not” but most ancient versions translate only “if.” The expression occurs with this sense in Isa 5:9; 14:24. See also Ezek 34:8; 36:5; 38:19.

⁶ sn Moses (Exod 3:19) and Isaiah (Isa 6:9-10) were also told that their messages would not be received.

⁷ sn A similar description of Israel’s disobedience is given in 1 Sam 8:7.

⁸ tn Heb “hard of forehead and stiff of heart.”

⁹ tn Heb “strong, resolute.”

¹⁰ tn The Hebrew term translated “diamond” is parallel to “iron” in Jer 17:1. The Hebrew uses two terms which are both translated at times as “flint,” but here one is clearly harder than the other. The translation “diamond” attempts to reflect this distinction in English.

¹¹ tn Heb “of their faces.”