Ezekiel 2:3

“Son of man,” He said to me, “I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me. To this very day they and their fathers have rebelled against Me.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — God addresses Ezekiel immediately after the Spirit enters him and sets him on his feet. He commissions the prophet to deliver a message to the Israelites, a nation that has consistently rebelled against Him alongside their ancestors.

The words — שׁוֹלֵ֨חַ (sho.Le.ach) = [am] sending, which establishes the divine origin of the commission and frames Ezekiel as a mandated messenger rather than a voluntary agent.

The thread — The pattern of persistent rebellion against God appears in Deuteronomy 9:24, where the people rebel since the day God knew them, and in 1 Samuel 8:7, where the people reject God’s direct kingship. Jeremiah 3:25 also records the nation’s collective acknowledgment of sinning against the Lord alongside their fathers.

Why it lands — The text demands obedience to deliver a divine message regardless of the audience’s entrenched hostility. It requires the reader to recognize that prophetic authority rests on God’s commission, not on human receptivity.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James Version

And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day.

Cross-references

Jeremiah 3:25 Let us lie down in our shame; let our disgrace cover us. We have sinned against the LORD our God, both we and our fathers; from our youth even to this day we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”
1 Samuel 8:7 And the LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king.
Deuteronomy 9:24 You have been rebelling against the LORD since the day I came to know you.
Daniel 9:5 we have sinned and done wrong. We have acted wickedly and rebelled. We have turned away from Your commandments and ordinances.
Numbers 20:10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly in front of the rock, and Moses said to them, “Listen now, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?”
Numbers 32:13 The anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the whole generation who had done evil in His sight was gone.
Deuteronomy 9:27 Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people and the wickedness of their sin.
2 Kings 17:17 They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire and practiced divination and soothsaying. They devoted themselves to doing evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.
2 Chronicles 36:15 Again and again the LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to His people through His messengers because He had compassion on them and on His dwelling place.
Ezra 9:7 From the days of our fathers to this day, our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities, we and our kings and priests have been delivered into the hands of the kings of the earth and subjected to the sword and to captivity, to pillage and humiliation, as we are this day.