NOTE: the children of Israel comprise 12 Tribes, only one of which is Judah (ancestor of the Jews). In reality, this lament convicts all mankind. Let us read it as both a personal (and national) indictment and a command to “fear not the briers, thorns, and scorpions.”)
Ezekiel (circa 626 BC)
3 And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day.
4 For they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD.
5 And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.
6 ¶ And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.
7 And thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they are most rebellious.
8 But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee.
9 ¶ And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein;
10 And he spread it before me; and it was written within and without: and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.*
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*Old Testament | Ezekiel 2:3-10
Ezekiel ... is the central protagonist of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible. / In Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Ezekiel is acknowledged as a Hebrew prophet. In Judaism and Christianity, he is also viewed as the 6th-century BCE author of the Book of Ezekiel, which reveals prophecies regarding the destruction of Jerusalem, and the restoration to the land of Israel.
The author of the Book of Ezekiel presents himself as Ezekiel, the son of Buzzi, born into a priestly (kohen) lineage.[1] Apart from identifying himself, the author gives a date for the first divine encounter which he presents: "in the thirtieth year".[2] If this is a reference to Ezekiel's age at the time, he was born around 622 BCE, about the time of Josiah's reforms,[3] and shortly after the call of Jeremiah to a prophetic ministry around 626 BCE.[4] Ezekiel's "thirtieth year" is given as five years after the exile of Judah's king Jehoiachin by the Babylonians. The Aramaic Targum on Ezekiel 1:1, however, as well as the 2nd-century rabbinic work Seder Olam Rabba (chapter 26), take a different approach, where they both say that Ezekiel's vision came "in the thirtieth year after Josiah was presented with a Book of the Law discovered in the Temple". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezekiel