Ezekiel 6:1-6

Against the mountains of Israel

1 The LORD's word came to me:
2 Human one, face Israel's mountains, and prophesy to them.
3 Say: Hear the LORD God's word, mountains of Israel! The LORD God proclaims to the mountains and hills, to the valleys and their deepest ravines: I'm about to bring a sword against you and destroy your shrines.
4 Your altars will be destroyed, your incense altars broken. And I'll make your slain fall in front of your idols.
5 I'll throw the Israelites' corpses in front of their idols, and I'll scatter your bones all around your altars.
6 Wherever you live, cities will be in ruins, shrines made desolate, turned into utter ruin. Your altars will be punished and then broken down. Your idols will be demolished, your incense altars shattered, and all your works wiped out.

Ezekiel 6:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 6

This chapter contains a prophecy of the desolation of the whole land of Israel, and a promise that a remnant should escape, with a lamentation for the sad destruction, signified by some gestures of the prophet. The order to the prophet to deliver out the prophecy is in Eze 6:1,2; the several parts of the land of Israel or Judea, to which the prophecy is directed, are signified by mountains, hills, rivers, and valleys, on which the sword should be brought, Eze 6:3; the desolation is described, and the cause of it suggested, the idolatry of the people, Eze 6:4-7; the promise of a remnant that should escape, who should remember the Lord, loath themselves for their sins, acknowledge him, and that his word was not in vain, is in Eze 6:8-10; the lamentation, signified by the prophet's smiting with his hand, and stamping with his foot, for the sins of the people, and the judgments that should come upon them, is in Eze 6:11; a particular enumeration of these judgments follows, and of the places where they should be executed, Eze 6:12; the end of them was to bring them to the knowledge and acknowledgment of the Lord, against whom they had sinned and offended by their idolatry, as the places where their slain fell would show, Eze 6:13; and the chapter is concluded with a resolution to bring this desolation on them, Eze 6:14.

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