11. Then go to all of your people in exile and tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says ….’ They will not listen, and they will not stop sinning, but you must still tell them my message.”
12. Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard a voice behind me. It was very loud, like thunder. It said, “Blessed is the Glory of the Lord!”
13. Then the wings of the living beings began moving. The wings made a very loud noise as they touched each other, and the wheels in front of them began making a noise as loud as thunder.
14. The Spirit lifted me and took me away. I was very sad and upset in my spirit, but I felt the Lord’S power in me.
15. I went to the people of Israel who were forced to live in Tel Aviv by the Kebar Canal. I sat there among them for seven days, shocked and silent.
16. After seven days, the word of the Lord came to me. He said,
17. “Son of man, I am making you a watchman for Israel. I will tell you about bad things that will happen to them, and you must warn Israel.
18. If I say, ‘These evil people will die!’ Then you must warn them. You must tell them to change their lives and stop doing evil. If you don’t warn them, they will die because they sinned. But I will also make you responsible for their death, because you did not go to them and save their lives.
19. “If you warn them and tell them to change their lives and stop doing evil, but they refuse to listen, they will die because they sinned. But since you warned them, you will have saved your own life.
20. “If good people stop being good and begin to do evil, and I send something that makes them stumble and sin, they will die because they sinned. But since you did not warn them and remind them of the good things they had done, I will make you responsible for their death.
21. “But if you warn good people and tell them to stop sinning, and they listen to your warning and stop sinning, they will not die. In that way you will have saved your own life.”
22. The Lord’S power came to me. He said to me, “Get up and go to the valley. I will speak to you in that place.”
23. So I got up and went out to the valley. The Glory of the Lord was there—as I had seen it by the Kebar Canal. So I bowed with my face to the ground.