Ezekiel 6

1 Yahweh gave me another message. He said,

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2 “You human, turn toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy [what will happen to] them, and say,

Son of man, let your face be turned to the mountains of Israel, and be a prophet to them, and say,

3 ‘You mountains and hills of Israel [APO], listen to what Yahweh the Lord says to you: “I am about to [enemy soldiers with] swords to come and destroy [the shrines on] your hilltops.

You mountains of Israel, give ear to the words of the Lord: this is what the Lord has said to the mountains and the hills, to the waterways and the valleys: See, I, even I, am sending on you a sword for the destruction of your high places.

4 They will smash all the [for worshiping idols] and the altars for burning incense. And they will [many Israeli] people in front of those idols.

And your altars will be made waste, and your sun-images will be broken: and I will have your dead men placed before your images.

5 Their corpses will lie in front of their idols, and their bones will be scattered around their altars.

And I will put the dead bodies of the children of Israel in front of their images, sending your bones in all directions about your altars.

6 Wherever the Israelis live, their towns will be ruined, and the shrines where they worship idols will be smashed. Their altars will be completely smashed [DOU], their idols will be completely smashed [DOU], and everything that they own will become a pile of ruins.

In all your living-places the towns will become broken walls, and the high places made waste; so that your altars may be broken down and made waste, and your images broken and ended, and so that your sun-images may be cut down and your works rubbed out.

7 Many of their people will be killed; and then they will know that I, Yahweh, [have the power to do the things that I say that I will do].

And the dead will be falling down among you, and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

8 But I will allow some of the Israelis to remain alive. They will escape being killed when their enemies scatter them among many other nations.

But still, I will keep a small band safe from the sword among the nations, when you are sent wandering among the countries.

9 When that happens, in those nations to which they have been forced to go, those who have escaped from being killed will think about me. They will remember that I was very grieved because of their turning away from me [IDM] with their inner beings, and because they very much desired [IDM] to worship their idols. They will (hate/be very displeased with) themselves because of the evil and detestable things that they have done.

And those of you who are kept safe will have me in mind among the nations where they have been taken away as prisoners, how I sent punishment on their hearts which were untrue to me, and on their eyes which were turned to their false gods: and they will be full of hate for themselves because of the evil things which they have done in all their disgusting ways.

10 [they will realize that] I, Yahweh, [have punished them. They will realize that] when I threatened to punish them, I surely intended [LIT] to do that.

And they will be certain that I am the Lord: not for nothing did I say that I would do this evil to them.

11 So this is what I, Yahweh the Lord, [to you, Ezekiel]: ‘Wring your hands and stamp your feet and cry [to show that you are distressed], and [about what will happen to] your Israeli people [MTY] because of all their wicked and detestable behavior. They will be killed [their enemies’] swords, they will die from hunger, and they will die from plagues.

This is what the Lord has said: Give blows with your hand, stamping with your foot, and say, O sorrow! because of all the evil and disgusting ways of the children of Israel: for death will overtake them by the sword and through need of food and by disease.

12 Those who are far [from Jerusalem] will die from plagues, those who are close [to Jerusalem] will be killed by [their enemies’] swords, and those who are still alive will die from hunger. That is how I will punish [MTY] them.

He who is far away will come to his death by disease; he who is near will be put to the sword; he who is shut up will come to his death through need of food; and I will give full effect to my passion against them.

13 [Some of] your people’s corpses will lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hilltop and on all the mountaintops, under every big tree [DOU]—at all the places where they burned incense [honor] their idols. Then they will know that I, Yahweh, [have the power to do what I say that I will do].

And you will be certain that I am the Lord, when their dead men are stretched among their images round about their altars on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, and under every branching tree, and under every thick oak-tree, the places where they made sweet smells to all their images.

14 And I will stretch out my arm and cause your entire country to become an empty wasteland, from the [in the far south] to [town in the far north]. Then they will realize that I, Yahweh, [have the power to do the things that I say that I will do].’”

And my hand will be stretched out against them, making the land waste and unpeopled, from the waste land to Riblah, through all their living-places: and they will be certain that I am the Lord.