A prophecy against the mountains
6
1 Yahweh gave me another message. He said, 2 “You human, turn toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy about what will happen to them, and say, 3 ‘You mountains and hills of Israel, listen to what Yahweh the Lord says to you: I am about to send enemy soldiers with swords to come and destroy all the shrines on your hilltops. 4 They will smash all your altars for worshiping idols and your altars for burning incense. And they will kill many Israeli people in front of those idols. 5 Their corpses will lie in front of their idols, and their bones will be scattered around their altars. 6 Wherever you Israelis live, your towns will be ruined, and the shrines where you worship idols will be smashed. Your altars will be completely smashed, your idols will be completely smashed, and everything that you own will become a pile of ruins. 7 Many of your people will be killed; and then you will know that I, Yahweh, have the power to do the things that I say that I will do.8 But I will allow some of you to remain alive. You will escape being killed when your enemies scatter you among many other nations. 9 When that happens, in those nations to which you have been forced to go, those of you who have escaped from being killed will think about me. You will remember that I was very grieved because of your turning away from me with your hearts, and because you very much desired to worship your idols. You will hate yourselves because of the evil and detestable things that you have done. 10 And they will realize that I, Yahweh, have punished them. They will realize that when I threatened to punish you, I surely intended to do that.
11 So this is what I, Yahweh the Lord, say to you, Ezekiel: Wring your hands and stamp your feet and cry out to show that you are distressed, and groan about what will happen to your Israeli people because of all their wicked and detestable behavior. They will be killed by their enemies' swords, they will die from hunger, and they will die from plagues. 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 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—at all the places where they burned incense to honor their idols. Then they will know that I, Yahweh, have the power to do what I say that I will do. 14 And I will stretch out my arm and cause every area in which they live in your country to become an empty wasteland, from the desert in the far south to the town of Diblah in the far north. Then they will realize that it is I, Yahweh, have the power to do the things that I say that I will do.’ ”