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.
24. But the Spirit came into me and lifted me up on my feet. He said to me, “Go home and lock yourself in your house.
25. Son of man, people will come with ropes and tie you up. They will not let you go out among the people.
26. I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth—you will not be able to talk. So they will not have anyone to teach them that they are doing wrong, because they are always turning against me.
27. But I will talk to you, and then I will allow you to speak. But you must say to them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says.’ If a person wants to listen, fine. If a person refuses to listen, fine. But those people always turn against me.