Ezek 6.1-14 is a scathing rebuke of idolatry, idolatrous places and idol worshipers. Several parts of the land are signified by the mountains, hills, ravines and valleys on which the Babylonian sword will come. The destruction is described and the promise of a remnant. Ezekiel laments about what is going to happen to the people. In the end, they will know the Lord and understand his anger against them for their idolatry.
v 1…And the word of the Lord (Yehovah) came to me saying,
v 2…”Son of man (“ben adam” signifying how Ezekiel represents the people), set your face (not to fear even though you will prophecy against family and friends, etc) toward the mountains of Israel (the whole land, not just Jerusalem), and prophesy against them,
v 3…and say, ‘Mountains of Israel (where idolatry happened, its shrines), listen to the word of the Lord (Adonai) God (Yehovah) to the mountains, the hills, ravines and the valleys: Behold, I myself am going to bring a sword on you, and I will destroy your high places (bamot).
v 4…So your altars will become desolate, and your incense altars will be smashed; and I will make your slain fall in front of their idols (people seeking help from their idol; Yehovah will have them killed before their false gods to show how useless they were).
v 5…I shall lay the dead bodies of the sons of Israel in front of their idols (to mock their idols and to show they had no power to save them or resurrect the dead). And I shall scatter your bones around your altars (defiling them-2 Kings 23.14).
v 6…In all your dwellings, cities will become waste (idolatry was there, too) and the high places will be desolate, that your altars may become waste and become guilty, your idols may be broken and brought to an end, your incense altars may be cut down, and your works (the idols themselves, the work of their hands) may be blotted out (abolished).
v 7…And the slain will fall among you (death on every side), and you will know that I am the Lord (Yehovah; it will be obvious that he brought this about).
v 8…However, (and yet), I shall leave a remnant (in Babylon and wherever he sends them), for you will have those who escaped the sword among the nations when you are scattered among the countries (Egypt, Ammon, Moab, Assyria ,etc).
v 9…Then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations to which they will be carried captive (the affliction got their attention), how I have been hurt (Yehovah was crushed by what they did) by their adulterous hearts which turned away from me by their eyes, which played the harlot after their idols (spiritual adultery); and they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed, for all their abominations.
v 10…Then they will know that I am the Lord (Yehovah); I have not said in vain that I would inflict this disaster on them (it was proof that Yehovah has spoken),”
v 11…”Thus says the Lord God (Adonai Yehovah) ‘Clap your hands, stamp your foot (to express anguish and sorrow) and say, “Alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, which will fall by the sword, famine and plague!
v 12…He who is afar off (flees to the wilderness or other countries) will die by the plague, and he who is near (around or near to the city) shall fall by the sword (within reach of the Babylonians), and he who remains (in the city) and is besieged will die by the famine. Thus I shall spend my wrath on them (fully carried out).
v 13…Then you will know that I am the Lord (Yehovah) when their slain are among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak-the places where they offered soothing aroma to all their idols.
v 14…So throughout all their habitations I shall stretch out my hand against them and make the land more desolate and waste than the wilderness towards Diblah (whose whereabouts is unknown); thus they will know that I am the Lord (proof that Yehovah had spoken).”
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