Ezekiel 6

Against the mountains

1The word of the LORD came to me: 2“Son of man, turn your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them. 3Say, ‘Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and hills, the ravines and valleys: I myself am bringing a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places. 4Your altars will be devastated and your incense altars broken. I will throw your slain down before your idols. 5I will lay the corpses of the Israelites before their idols and scatter your bones around your altars. 6Wherever you live, the towns will be ruined and the high places devastated. Your altars will lie ruined and desolate, your idols shattered and gone, your incense altars cut down, and your handiwork wiped out. 7The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the LORD.

Survivors among the nations

8“‘Yet I will leave some alive. Some of you will escape the sword among the nations when you are scattered through other lands. 9Then your survivors will remember me among the nations where they have been taken captive—how I was broken by their unfaithful heart that turned away from me, and by their eyes that went whoring after their idols. They will loathe themselves for the evil they did, for all their abominations. 10They will know that I am the LORD, that I did not speak idly when I said I would bring this disaster on them.’

The scattered slain

11“This is what the Lord GOD says: Strike your hands together, stamp your foot, and cry, ‘Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel!’ They will fall by sword, famine, and plague. 12Those far away will die of plague; those nearby will fall by the sword. Those who remain, shut inside, will die of famine. I will spend my fury on them. 13You will know that I am the LORD when their slain lie among their idols, around their altars, on every high hill and every mountaintop, beneath every green tree and every leafy oak—wherever they offered a pleasing aroma to all their idols. 14I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah, wherever they live. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”