Ezekiel 6

₁The Lord talked to me and He said: ₂‘Son of man, look towards the mountains_of_Israel and tell them what I say to you. Prophesy_against them. ₃You must say: “Mountains_of_Israel, you must listen to what the Lord God says. The Lord God says to the mountains and hills and rivers and valleys: I will now bring war to you and I will destroy your places_of_sacrifice. ₄The enemies will destroy your altars and break down your incense-altars. Your people will die in war and fall down dead in front of your idols. ₅I will cause the dead bodies of the Israelites to lie down in front of their idols and I will throw their bones all around the altars. ₆The cities where you live now will become heaps of stones everywhere. The enemies will destroy your places_of_sacrifice, and they will break down your altars. They will cut down your idols and nothing will be left over. They will break down your incense-altars and take away everything that you have made. ₇The bodies of the people who have died in war will lie down among you. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

₈But not all of you will die in war. I will let some of you escape and stay alive and they will go and live among other nations in their lands. ₉The people who escape will think of Me when they are prisoners among other nations. They will remember how they made Me sad when they were unfaithful and went away from Me to worship their idols. They will hate themselves for the bad things they did, the things that I hate. ₁₀Then they will know that I am the Lord. I told them that I would make these bad things happen to them, and I did what I said.” ’

₁₁The Lord God says: ‘Clap your hands, stamp your feet and complain about the bad things that the people of Israel have done. They will die in war. They will die from hunger and disease. ₁₂The people who are far away will die of disease, and the people who are near the city will die in war. The people who are still_alive after that will die from hunger. I am very angry, and I will not stop punishing them. ₁₃You will know that I am the Lord when you see people who have died in war lying dead among their idols around their altars. It will happen on every high hill, on all the mountains, under every green tree, near every tree with a lot of branches, and at all the places where they have sacrificed to their idols. ₁₄I will put out my hand and I will punish them. I will make their land a place where no one can live. Everyone will become afraid of the land, from the desert to the town of Diblah, and everywhere that they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’