Judgment on the Mountains of Israel
Ezekiel 6The word of YHWH came to me, saying, “Son of humanity, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy to them, and say, ‘Mountains of Israel, y’all must listen the word of Lord YHWH! Lord YHWH says to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys: “Look, I myself will bring a sword on y’all, and I will destroy y’all’s high places. Y’all’s altars will become desolate, and y’all’s incense altars will be broken. I will throw down your* slain in front of y’all’s idols. I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel in front of their idols. I will scatter y’all’s bones around y’all’s altars. In all y’all’s dwelling places, the cities will be laid waste and the high places will be demolished, so that y’all’s altars will be demolished and runed, and y’all’s idols may be broken and cease, and y’all’s incense altars may be cut down, and y’all’s works may be blotted out. The slain will fall among y’all, and y’all will know that I am YHWH.
“‘“Yet I will spare a remnant. Some of y’all will escape the sword among the nations when y’all are scattered through the lands. Then y’all’s survivors will remember me in the nations where they are exiled, how I was crushed by their lustful hearts that have departed from me, and with their eyes that lust after their idols. Then they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils they have committed in all their abominations. They will know that I am YHWH. I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them.”’
“Lord YHWH says: ‘Strike with your hand, and stamp with your foot, and say, “Alas!”, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel; for they will fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. He who is far off will die of the pestilence. He who is near will fall by the sword. He who remains and is besieged will die by the famine. Thus I will accomplish my wrath on them. Y’all will know that I am YHWH when their people lie slain around their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree, and under every thick oak—the places where they offered pleasant aroma to all their idols. I will stretch out my hand on them and make the land desolate and waste, from the wilderness toward Diblah, throughout all their habitations. Then they will know that I am YHWH.’”