4. The Lord said:Ezekiel, I am sending you to your own people.
5-6. They are Israelites, not strangers who speak a foreign language you can't understand. If I were to send you to foreign nations, they would listen to you.
7. But the people of Israel will refuse to listen, because they have refused to listen to me. All of them are stubborn and hard-headed,
8. so I will make you as stubborn as they are.
9. You will be so determined to speak my message that nothing will stop you. I will make you hard like a diamond, and you'll have no reason to be afraid of those arrogant rebels.
10. Listen carefully to everything I say and then think about it.
11. Then go to the people who were brought here to Babylonia with you and tell them you have a message from me, the Lord God. Do this, whether they listen to you or not.