The Prophet had been transported from the place mentioned in chapter i:1 to Tel-abib, which was also on the river Chebar. Here a number of captives dwelt. For seven days he sat in their presence astonished and did not open his lips. Was it their sad condition, or the knowledge of their rebellious spirit, or the threatening judgments which produced this silence? Most likely these things filled the Priest-Prophet with unspeakable sorrow and sadness, so that he could not find words. And the captives must have read the burden of his soul in his countenance. The scene reminds us of Job and his three friends, who "sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word unto him, for they saw that his grief was very great" (Job ii:13). Job broke the silence by cursing his day. But the silence of Ezekiel's seven days was broken by the Lord Himself. He addressed the Prophet and told him that He had made him "a watchman unto the house of Israel." His duty and responsibility in that capacity was twofold; first to hear the Lord's Word from His own lips, then to give the warning from Him. Warning is the important call of a watchman (chapter xxxiii:2, 6, 7; Isaiah lii:8; lvi:10; Jer. vi:17). If the appointed watchman does not hear the Word as it comes from Jehovah, he cannot sound the alarm. The false prophets in Israel, who did not warn the people, but said, "Peace, peace!" when there was no peace, followed their own dreams instead of the Word. They did not believe the solemn messages God had given through former prophets. That was the curse among the professing people of God then. It produced a false security, decline and apostasy; it hastened the impending judgments of God. It is the curse to-day in the professing church. His Word is rejected. The solemn truths concerning "judgment to come" upon an ungodly age and apostate "church" are not heeded and mostly rejected. The man who sounds the warning and stands by the declarations of God's Word is as unpopular with the people to-day as Jeremiah and Ezekiel were in their days.