Ezekiel 3:6 (DBY)

Passage

not to many peoples of strange language and of difficult speech, whose words thou canst not understand: had I sent thee to them, would they not hearken unto thee?

Nearby Context

Ezekiel 3:4 And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them.

Ezekiel 3:5 For thou art not sent to a people of strange language, and of difficult speech, [but] to the house of Israel;

Ezekiel 3:6 not to many peoples of strange language and of difficult speech, whose words thou canst not understand: had I sent thee to them, would they not hearken unto thee?

Ezekiel 3:7 But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee, for none of them will hearken unto me. For all the house of Israel are hard of forehead and stiff of heart.

Ezekiel 3:8 Behold, I have made thy face hard against their faces, and thy forehead hard against their foreheads.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "peoples", "strange", "language", "difficult", "speech", "whose", "words", and "thou". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "peoples" and "strange", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 5's "For thou art not sent to a..." into verse 7's "But the house of Israel will not...", so "peoples" and "strange" belong inside that flow. In Ezekiel context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "peoples" and "strange" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.