“I am sending you to the children of Israel.” This is some important information. For one thing, “the children of Israel” that Ezekiel was commissioned to speak to were not in Israel, they were in captivity in Babylon, as was Ezekiel himself. The Judeans back in Judah were being addressed by prophets there, such as Jeremiah. Also, Ezekiel is sent to “the children of Israel,” not “the children of Judah,” although sometimes people of Judah are singled out. Although Nebuchadnezzar had deported the Judeans, the Assyrians had deported the ten northern tribes of Israel about 125 years earlier (Samaria had been breached and captured in 722 BC, and the people carried away into exile). So apparently there were both people from the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah that were addressed by Ezekiel, and the people from both Israel and Judah had rebelled against God.