Ezekiel 6
Easy-to-Read Version
Prophecies Against Israel
6 Then the word of the Lord came to me again. 2 He said, “Son of man,[a] turn toward the mountains of Israel and speak against them for me. 3 Tell them this: ‘Mountains of Israel, listen to this message from the Lord God! This is what the Lord God says to the hills and mountains and to the ravines and valleys: Look! I am bringing the enemy to fight against you. I will destroy your high places. 4 Your altars will be broken into pieces. Your incense altars will be smashed, and I will throw down your dead bodies in front of your filthy idols. 5 I will put the dead bodies of the people of Israel in front of their filthy idols. I will scatter your bones around your altars. 6 Bad things will happen wherever your people live. Their cities will become piles of rock. Their high places will be destroyed so that those places of worship will never be used again. The altars will all be destroyed. People will never worship those filthy idols again. The incense altars will be smashed. Everything you made will be destroyed completely. 7 Your people will be killed, and then you will know that I am the Lord!’”
8 God said, “But I will let a few of your people escape. They will live in other countries for a short time. I will scatter them and force them to live in other countries. 9 Then the survivors will be taken as prisoners. They will be forced to live in other countries, but they will remember me. I broke their spirit.[b] They will hate themselves for the evil things they did. In the past, they turned away from me and left me. They chased after their filthy idols. They were like a woman leaving her husband and running off with another man. They did many terrible things, 10 but they will learn that I am the Lord. Then they will know that if I say that I will do something, I will do it! They will know that I caused all the troubles that happened to them.”
11 Then the Lord God said to me, “Clap your hands and stamp your feet. Speak against all the terrible things that the people of Israel have done. Warn them that they will be killed by disease and hunger. Tell them they will be killed in war. 12 People far away will die from disease. People near this place will be killed with swords, and those who are left in the city will starve to death. Only then will I stop being angry. 13 Only then will you know that I am the Lord. You will know this when you see your dead bodies in front of your filthy idols and around their altars. Those bodies will be near every one of your places for worship,[c] on every high hill and mountain, under every green tree and every oak tree with leaves. You offered your sacrifices everywhere. They were a sweet smell for your filthy idols. 14 But I will raise my arm over you and punish you and your people, wherever they live! I will destroy your country! It will be completely empty from the desert in the south to Riblah[d] in the north. Then they will know that I am the Lord!”
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 6:2 Son of man This was usually just a way of saying “a person” or “a human being.” Here, it is a way of addressing Ezekiel. Also in 7:2.
- Ezekiel 6:9 spirit Literally, “heart.”
- Ezekiel 6:13 places for worship Or “high places.” See “high place” in the Word List.
- Ezekiel 6:14 Riblah Most Hebrew copies have “Diblah.”
Ezekiel 6
King James Version
6 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,
3 And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God; Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.
4 And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.
5 And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.
6 In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.
7 And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
8 Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.
9 And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.
10 And they shall know that I am the Lord, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them.
11 Thus saith the Lord God; Smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.
12 He that is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my fury upon them.
13 Then shall ye know that I am the Lord, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols.
14 So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath, in all their habitations: and they shall know that I am the Lord.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International