Ezekiel 6 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Around 592 BC, during the final years of the kingdom of Judah under Zedekiah
Location
Delivered in Babylonia but addressed to the hill country of Judah and Israel, the highland ridge running north and south through the land
Audience
The Judean exiles, hearing a verdict on the homeland they had left behind
Situation
Ezekiel is told to turn toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against the hilltop shrines, announcing that the altars will be smashed and the dead will lie among the idols they worshipped. A remnant who escape into exile will remember God there and be disgusted with themselves.
Key Background
Worship at open air platforms on high ground, often called high places, was the ordinary religious practice of the region, with altars, standing stones and sacred poles set on ridges and hilltops rather than inside buildings. Judah's reformers had repeatedly tried to shut these local shrines and centralise worship in Jerusalem, and the practice kept returning, which is why the mountains themselves are addressed as the defendant. The phrase repeated throughout, that they will know that I am the Lord, is the recognition formula used when a king's authority is publicly established, and it appears more than sixty times in this book.
The of Yahweh came to me:
of turn your face toward the of and speak my words against them."
Say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the This is what the says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring a against you, and I will destroy your on the
Your will be left in ruins, your will be shattered, and I will throw your slain down in front of your
I will lay the corpses of the people of Israel in front of their idols, and I will scatter your around your altars.
Everywhere you live, the cities will be laid waste and the hilltop worship sites demolished — so that your altars lie in your worthless idols are smashed and finished, your incense stands are cut down, and everything you made is wiped out.
The slain will fall among you, and you will that I am
"But I will leave a — some of you will escape the sword and be scattered among the exiled across foreign lands."
Then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are held captive — how I was by their that turned away from me, and by their eyes that chased after their worthless idols. They will be with for the evil they committed, for all the they did.
And they will know that I am Yahweh. I did not threaten to bring this disaster on them for
This is what the Lord Yahweh says: and cry out 'What horror!' because of all the vile evil of the people of Israel — they will fall by the sword, by and by
The one far away will die by plague, the one nearby will fall by the sword, and whoever is left and survives will die by famine. This is how I will spend my on them.
Then you will know that I am Yahweh — when their slain lie among their idols, around their altars, on every high hill and every mountain summit, under every and every — every place where they offered to all their worthless idols.
I will out my against them and make the land a from the wilderness to everywhere they live. Then they will know that I am Yahweh."