Ezekiel 2:4
◄  Ezekiel 2:4  ►
New International Version (©2011)
The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says.'

New Living Translation (©2007)
They are a stubborn and hard-hearted people. But I am sending you to say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says!'

English Standard Version (©2001)
The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD.’

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"I am sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children, and you shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD.'

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
For they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
The children are obstinate and hardhearted. I am sending you to them, and you must say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says.'

International Standard Version (©2012)
They're stubborn and strong willed. I'm sending you to them to tell them what the LORD says.

NET Bible (©2006)
The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and hard-hearted, and you must say to them, 'This is what the sovereign LORD says.'

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
I am sending you to these defiant and stubborn children. Tell them, 'This is what the Almighty LORD says.'

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
For they are impudent children and stubborn. I do send you unto them; and you shall say unto them, Thus says the Lord GOD.

American King James Version
For they are impudent children and stiff hearted. I do send you to them; and you shall say to them, Thus said the Lord GOD.

American Standard Version
And the children are impudent and stiffhearted: I do sent thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And they to whom I send thee are children of a hard face, and of an obstinate heart: and thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord God:

Darby Bible Translation
and these children are impudent and hard-hearted: I am sending thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah.

English Revised Version
And the children are impudent and stiffhearted; I do send thee unto them: and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD.

Webster's Bible Translation
For they are impudent children and obstinate in heart. I send thee to them; and thou shalt say to them, Thus saith the Lord GOD.

World English Bible
The children are impudent and stiff-hearted: I am sending you to them; and you shall tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh.

Young's Literal Translation
And the sons are brazen-faced and hard-hearted to whom I am sending thee, and thou hast said unto them: Thus said the Lord Jehovah:

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:1-5 Lest Ezekiel should be lifted up with the abundance of the revelations, he is put in mind that still he is a son of man, a weak, mortal creature. As Christ usually called himself the Son of man, it was also an honourable distinction. Ezekiel's posture showed reverence, but his standing up would be a posture of greater readiness and fitness for business. God will speak to us, when we stand ready to do what he commands us. As Ezekiel had not strength of his own, the Spirit entered into him. God is graciously pleased to work in us whatever he requires of us. The Holy Spirit sets us upon our feet, by inclining our wills to our duty. Thus, when the Lord calls upon the sinner to awake, and attend to the concerns of his soul, the Spirit of life and grace comes with the call. Ezekiel is sent with a message to the children of Israel. Many might treat his message with contempt, yet they should know by the event that a prophet had been sent to them. God will be glorified, and his word made honourable, whether it be a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - Impudent children and stiff-hearted; literally, hard of face (i.e. callous to their shame) and stiff of heart. The LXX. gives aptly, σκληροπρόσωποι καὶ σκληροκάρδιοι (compare the "past feeling" of Ephesians 4:19). Thus saith the Lord God. In the Hebrew, Adoaai Jehovah; which the LXX. represents by Κύριος Κύριος, and Luther by "der Herr Herr." The two highest names of the God of Israel were 'used to denote the fulness of the prophet's inspiration. The same formula occurs in Ezekiel 3:11, 27: 13:8; 22:28, and passim. So also in 2 Samuel 7:18, 19, 20, 29; and elsewhere.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For they are impudent children,.... "Hard of face" (w); as is commonly said of impudent persons, that they are brasen faced; they had a whore's forehead, and refused to be ashamed, and made their faces harder than a rock, Jeremiah 3:3; they declared their sin as Sodam, and hid it not; they sinned openly, and could not blush at it:

and stiffhearted; or, "strong of heart" (x); whose hearts were like an adamant stone, and harder than the nether millstone; impenitent, obdurate, and inflexible; they were not only stiff-necked, as Stephen says they were in his time, and always had been; but stiff-hearted; they were not subject to the law of God now, nor would they submit to the Gospel and ordinances of Christ in his time, and in the times of his apostles, nor to his righteousness, Romans 10:3;

I do send thee unto them; even to such as they are: this is a repetition, and a confirmation, of his mission; and suggests, that though they were such, he should not refuse to go to them, since he had sent him:

and thou shalt say unto them, thus saith the Lord God: that what he said came from the Lord, and was spoken in his name.

(w) "duri facie", Pagninus, Vatablus, Calvin, Cocceius, Starckius. (x) "duri corde", Pagninus, Montanus; "fortes carde", Vatablus, Polanus.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. impudent—literally, "hard-faced" (Eze 3:7, 9).

children—resumptive of "they" (Eze 2:3); the "children" walk in their "fathers'" steps.

I … send thee—God opposes His command to all obstacles. Duties are ours; events are God's.

Thus saith the Lord God—God opposes His name to the obstinacy of the people.

Ezekiel 2:4 Parallel Commentaries

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Ezekiel's Call
…3And he said to me, Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even to this very day. 4For they are impudent children and stiff hearted. I do send you to them; and you shall say to them, Thus said the Lord GOD. 5And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there has been a prophet among them. …

Psalm 95:8 "Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,
Isaiah 48:4 For I knew how stubborn you were; your neck muscles were iron, your forehead was bronze.
Jeremiah 1:7 But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am too young.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.
Jeremiah 5:3 LORD, do not your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.
Jeremiah 6:15 Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them," says the LORD.
Jeremiah 36:21 The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and Jehudi brought it from the room of Elishama the secretary and read it to the king and all the officials standing beside him.
Ezekiel 3:7 But the people of Israel are not willing to listen to you because they are not willing to listen to me, for all the Israelites are hardened and obstinate.
Amos 7:15 But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'
Zechariah 7:12 They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.