Doom for the Mountains of Israel

The word of the Lord came to me:

“Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel; prophesy against them

and say: ‘You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Sovereign Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.

And they will know that I am the Lord, when their people lie slain among their idols around their altars, on every high hill and on all the mountaintops, under every spreading tree and every leafy oak—places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols.

Doom has come upon you, upon you who dwell in the land. The time has come! The day is near! There is panic, not joy, on the mountains.

The fugitives who escape will flee to the mountains. Like doves of the valleys, they will all moan, each for their own sins.

The glory of the Lord went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain east of it.

“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain.

On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches.

He does not eat at the mountain shrines or look to the idols of Israel. He does not defile his neighbor’s wife or have sexual relations with a woman during her period.

(though the father has done none of them): “He eats at the mountain shrines. He defiles his neighbor’s wife.

“He does not eat at the mountain shrines or look to the idols of Israel. He does not defile his neighbor’s wife.

With hooks they pulled him into a cage and brought him to the king of Babylon. They put him in prison, so his roar was heard no longer on the mountains of Israel.

For on my holy mountain, the high mountain of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord, there in the land all the people of Israel will serve me, and there I will accept them. There I will require your offerings and your choice gifts, along with all your holy sacrifices.

In you are slanderers who are bent on shedding blood; in you are those who eat at the mountain shrines and commit lewd acts.

and the most ruthless of foreign nations cut it down and left it. Its boughs fell on the mountains and in all the valleys; its branches lay broken in all the ravines of the land. All the nations of the earth came out from under its shade and left it.

I will spread your flesh on the mountains and fill the valleys with your remains.

I will drench the land with your flowing blood all the way to the mountains, and the ravines will be filled with your flesh.

I will make the land a desolate waste, and her proud strength will come to an end, and the mountains of Israel will become desolate so that no one will cross them.

My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.

I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land.

I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.

I will fill your mountains with the slain; those killed by the sword will fall on your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines.

Then you will know that I the Lord have heard all the contemptible things you have said against the mountains of Israel. You said, “They have been laid waste and have been given over to us to devour.”

Hope for the Mountains of Israel

“Son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say, ‘Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord.