Ezekiel 6

6 ¹ The word of our Father came to me:

² Son of man, turn and face the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them. ³ Say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Sovereign Father. This is what the Sovereign Father says to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places. ¹ 1 v3 High places were hilltop shrines where Israel practiced pagan worship. ⁴ Your altars will be demolished and your incense altars smashed, and I will lay your slain before your idols. ⁵ I will lay the corpses of the people of Israel in front of their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars. ⁶ Wherever you live, the cities will be ruined and the high places demolished, so that your altars will lie ruined and desolate, your idols smashed and destroyed, your incense altars cut down, and everything you have made wiped out. ⁷ People will fall slain among you, and you will know that I am your Father.

A Remnant Will Remember

⁸ But I will leave a remnant, for some of you will escape the sword among the nations when you are scattered through the lands. ⁹ Then your survivors will remember me among the nations where they are taken captive — how I was broken by their adulterous heart that turned away from me, and by their eyes that lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves for the evil they have done, for all their detestable practices. ² 2 v9 Our Father says his own heart was broken by his children's unfaithfulness — the judgment here flows from wounded love, not cold rejection. ¹⁰ And they will know that I am their Father; I did not threaten to bring this disaster on them in vain.

¹¹ This is what the Sovereign Father says: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, and cry out, "How terrible!" over all the wicked and detestable practices of the house of Israel, for they will fall by sword, famine, and plague. ¹² Those far away will die of plague, those nearby will fall by the sword, and anyone who survives and is spared will die of famine. So I will pour out my wrath upon them. ¹³ Then you will know that I am your Father, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree and every leafy oak — the places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols. ¹⁴ I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Riblah, wherever they live. Then they will know that I am their Father.