Ezekiel 6
Good News Translation
The Lord Condemns Idolatry
6 The Lord spoke to me. 2 “Mortal man,” he said, “look toward the mountains of Israel and give them my message. 3 Tell the mountains of Israel to hear the Sovereign Lord's word—to hear what I, the Sovereign Lord, am telling the mountains, the hills, the gorges, and the valleys: I will send a sword to destroy the places where people worship idols. 4 The altars will be torn down and the incense altars broken. All the people there will be killed in front of their idols. 5 I will scatter the corpses of the people of Israel; I will scatter their bones all around the altars. 6 All the cities of Israel will be destroyed, so that all their altars and their idols will be smashed to pieces, their incense altars will be shattered, and everything they made will disappear. 7 People will be killed everywhere, and those who survive will acknowledge that I am the Lord.
8 “I will let some escape the slaughter and be scattered among the nations, 9 where they will live in exile. There they will remember me and know that I have punished them and disgraced them,[a] because their faithless hearts deserted me and they preferred idols to me. And they will be disgusted with themselves because of the evil and degrading things they have done. 10 They will know that I am the Lord and that my warnings were not empty threats.”
11 The Sovereign Lord said, “Wring your hands! Stamp your feet! Cry in sorrow because of all the evil, disgusting things the Israelites have done. They are going to die in war or of starvation or disease. 12 Those far away will get sick and die; those nearby will be killed in war; those who survive will starve to death. They will feel all the force of my anger. 13 Corpses will be scattered among the idols and around the altars, scattered on every high hill, on the top of every mountain, under every green tree and every large oak, in every place where they burned sacrifices to their idols. Then everyone will know that I am the Lord. 14 Yes, I will reach out and destroy their country. I will make it a wasteland from the southern desert to the city of Riblah in the north, not sparing any place where the Israelites live. Then everyone will know that I am the Lord.”
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 6:9 Some ancient translations disgraced them; Hebrew I am disgraced.
Ezekiel 6
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Judgment on Idolatrous Israel
6 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 O mortal, set your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them 3 and say: You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I, I myself, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.(A) 4 Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense stands shall be broken, and I will throw down your slain in front of your idols.(B) 5 I will lay the corpses of the people of Israel in front of their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars. 6 Wherever you live, your towns shall be waste and your high places ruined, so that your altars will be waste and ruined,[a] your idols broken and destroyed, your incense stands cut down, and your works wiped out.(C) 7 The slain shall fall in your midst; then you shall know that I am the Lord.(D)
8 But I will spare some. Some of you shall escape the sword among the nations and be scattered through the countries.(E) 9 Your survivors shall remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I was crushed by their wanton heart that turned away from me and their wanton eyes that turned after their idols. Then they will be loathsome in their own sight for the evils that they have committed, for all their abominations.(F) 10 And they shall know that I am the Lord; I did not threaten in vain to bring this disaster upon them.
11 Thus says the Lord God: Strike your hands together and stamp your foot and say Alas! for all the vile abominations of the house of Israel. For they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.(G) 12 Those far off shall die of pestilence, those nearby shall fall by the sword, and any who are left and are spared shall die of famine. Thus I will spend my fury upon them.(H) 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak, wherever they offered pleasing odor to all their idols.(I) 14 I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land desolate and waste, throughout all their settlements, from the wilderness to Riblah.[b] Then they shall know that I am the Lord.(J)
Ezekiel 6
Complete Jewish Bible
6 The word of Adonai came to me: 2 “Human being, face toward the mountains of Isra’el, and prophesy against them: 3 ‘Mountains of Isra’el, hear the word of Adonai Elohim: here is what Adonai Elohim says about the mountains, hills, ravines and valleys: “I myself will bring a sword against you and destroy your high places. 4 Your altars will be wrecked and your pillars for sun-worship broken, and I will throw down your slain ones in front of your idols. 5 I will lay the corpses of the people of Isra’el in front of their idols and scatter your bones all around your altars. 6 Everywhere you live, the cities will be destroyed and the high places wrecked; so that your altars can be destroyed and wrecked, your idols broken and abolished, your pillars for sun-worship cut down and the things you have made wiped out. 7 The slain will fall among you; then you will know that I am Adonai.
8 “‘“Nevertheless, I will leave a remnant, some who will escape the sword among the nations, when you have been scattered throughout the countries. 9 Those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they have been exiled. How broken I have been over their whoring hearts that left me, and over their eyes that went whoring after their idols! They are going to loathe themselves for all the evils they committed in their disgusting practices. 10 Then they will know that I am Adonai; it isn’t for nothing that I said I would bring this calamity upon them.”’
11 “Here is what Adonai Elohim says: ‘Strike with your hand, and stamp with your foot, and bemoan all the terrible disgusting practices of the house of Isra’el. For they will fall by sword, famine and plague. 12 Those far away will die from the plague, those nearby will fall by the sword, and whoever stays and is besieged will die from famine. This is how I will spend my fury on them. 13 You will know that I am Adonai when their slain men are lying among their idols around their altars on every high hill, on every mountaintop, under every green tree, under every thick pistachio tree, wherever they offered sweet-smelling sacrifices to appease their idols. 14 I will stretch out my hand over them and make the land wherever they live into a desolate waste worse than the Divlah Desert. Then they will know that I am Adonai.’”
Ezekiel 6
The Message
Turn Israel into Wasteland
6 1-7 Then the Word of God came to me: “Son of man, now turn and face the mountains of Israel and preach against them: ‘O Mountains of Israel, listen to the Message of God, the Master. God, the Master, speaks to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I’m about to destroy your sacred god and goddess shrines. I’ll level your altars, bust up your sun-god pillars, and kill your people as they bow down to your no-god idols. I’ll stack the dead bodies of Israelites in front of your idols and then scatter your bones around your shrines. Every place where you’ve lived, the towns will be torn down and the pagan shrines demolished—altars busted up, idols smashed, all your custom-made sun-god pillars in ruins. Corpses everywhere you look! Then you’ll know that I am God.
8-10 “‘But I’ll let a few escape the killing as you are scattered through other lands and nations. In the foreign countries where they’re taken as prisoners of war, they’ll remember me. They’ll realize how devastated I was by their betrayals, by their voracious lust for gratifying themselves in their idolatries. They’ll be disgusted with their evil ways, disgusting to God in the way they’ve lived. They’ll know that I am God. They’ll know that my judgment against them was no empty threat.
11-14 “‘This is what God, the Master, says: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, yell out, “No, no, no!” because of all the evil obscenities rife in Israel. They’re going to be killed, dying of hunger, dying of disease—death everywhere you look, people dropping like flies, people far away dying, people nearby dying, and whoever’s left in the city starving to death. Why? Because I’m angry, furiously angry. They’ll realize that I am God when they see their people’s corpses strewn over and around all their ruined sex-and-religion shrines on the bare hills and in the lush fertility groves, in all the places where they indulged their sensual rites. I’ll bring my hand down hard on them, demolish the country wherever they live, turn it into wasteland from one end to the other, from the wilderness to Riblah. Then they’ll know that I am God!’”
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson