3:1 He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you see in front of you 1 – eat this scroll – and then go and speak to the house of Israel.” 3:2 So I opened my mouth and he fed me the scroll.
3:3 He said to me, “Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll I am giving to you.” So I ate it, 2 and it was sweet like honey in my mouth.
3:4 He said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak my words to them. 3:5 For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech 3 and difficult language, 4 but 5 to the house of Israel – 3:6 not to many peoples of unintelligible speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand 6 – surely if 7 I had sent you to them, they would listen to you! 3:7 But the house of Israel is unwilling to listen to you, 8 because they are not willing to listen to me, 9 for the whole house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted. 10
3:8 “I have made your face adamant 11 to match their faces, and your forehead hard to match their foreheads. 3:9 I have made your forehead harder than flint – like diamond! 12 Do not fear them or be terrified of the looks they give you, 13 for they are a rebellious house.”
3:10 And he said to me, “Son of man, take all my words that I speak to you to heart and listen carefully. 3:11 Go to the exiles, to your fellow countrymen, 14 and speak to them – say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ whether they pay attention or not.”
1 tn Heb “eat what you find.”
2 tc Heb “I ate,” a first common singular preterite plus paragogic he (ה). The ancient versions read “I ate it,” which is certainly the meaning in the context, and indicates they read the he as a third feminine singular pronominal suffix. The Masoretes typically wrote a mappiq in the he for the pronominal suffix but apparently missed this one.
sn I ate it. A similar idea of consuming God’s word is found in Jer 15:16 and Rev 10:10, where it is also compared to honey and may be specifically reminiscent of this text.
3 tn Heb “deep of lip” (in the sense of incomprehensible).
4 tn Heb “heavy of tongue.” Similar language occurs in Exod 4:10; Isa 33:19.
5 tn The conjunction “but” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied from the context.
6 tn Heb “hear.”
7 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.
8 sn Moses (Exod 3:19) and Isaiah (Isa 6:9-10) were also told that their messages would not be received.
9 sn A similar description of Israel’s disobedience is given in 1 Sam 8:7.
10 tn Heb “hard of forehead and stiff of heart.”
11 tn Heb “strong, resolute.”
12 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.
13 tn Heb “of their faces.”
14 tn Heb “to the sons of your people.”