Israel Is Doomed
1 The Lord God said:
2 Ezekiel, son of man, face the hills of Israel and tell them:
3 Listen, you mountains and hills, and every valley and gorge! I, the Lord, am about to turn against you and crush all the places where foreign gods are worshiped. 4 Every altar will be smashed, and in front of the idols I will put to death the people who worship them. 5 Dead bodies and bones will be lying around the idols and the altars. 6 Every town in Israel will be destroyed to make sure that each shrine, idol, and altar is smashed—everything the Israelites made will be a pile of ruins. 7 All over the country, your people will die. And those who survive will know that I, the Lord, did these things. 8 I will let some of the people live through this punishment, but I will scatter them among the nations, 9 where they will be prisoners. And when they think of me, they will realize that they disgraced me by rebelling and by worshiping idols. They will hate themselves for the evil things they did, 10 and they will know that I am the Lord and that my warnings must be taken seriously.
11 The Lord God then said:
Ezekiel, beat your fists together and stomp your feet in despair! Moan in sorrow, because the people of Israel have done disgusting things and now will be killed by enemy troops, or they will die from starvation and disease. 12 Those who live far away will be struck with deadly diseases. Those who live nearby will be killed in war. And the ones who are left will starve to death. I will let loose my anger on them! 13 These people used to offer incense to idols at altars built on hills and mountaintops and in the shade of large oak trees. But when they see dead bodies lying around those altars, they will know that I am the Lord. 14 I will make their country a barren wasteland, from the Southern Desert to the town of Diblah in the north. Then they will know that I, the Lord, have done these things.
1 Again the worde of the Lord came vnto me, saying, 2 Sonne of man, Set thy face towardes the mountaines of Israel, and prophecie against them, 3 And say, Ye mountaines of Israel, heare the worde of the Lord God: thus sayth the Lord God to the mountaines and to the hilles, to the riuers and to the valleis, Beholde, I, euen I will bring a sworde vpon you, and I will destroy your hie places: 4 And your altars shalbe desolate, and your images of the sunne shalbe broken: and I will cast downe your slaine men before your idoles. 5 And I will lay the dead carkeises of the children of Israel before their idoles, and I will scatter your bones round about your altars. 6 In all your dwelling places the cities shalbe desolate, and the hie places shalbe laide waste, so that your altars shalbe made waste and desolate, and your idoles shalbe broken, and cease, and your images of the sunne shalbe cut in pieces, and your workes shalbe abolished. 7 And the slaine shall fall in the middes of you, and ye shall knowe that I am the Lord. 8 Yet will I leaue a remnant, that you may haue some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when you shalbe scattred through the countreyes. 9 And they that escape of you, shall remember me among the nations, where they shalbe in captiuitie, because I am grieued for their whorish hearts, which haue departed from mee, and for their eyes, which haue gone a whoring after their idoles, and they shalbe displeased in them selues for the euils, which they haue committed in all their abominations. 10 And they shall knowe that I am the Lord, and that I haue not saide in vaine, that I woulde doe this euill vnto them. 11 Thus saith the Lord God, Smite with thine hand, and stretch forth with thy foote, and say, Alas, for all the wicked abominations of the house of Israel: for they shall fall by the sworde, by the famine, and by the pestilence. 12 He that is farre off, shall dye of the pestilence, and he that is neere, shall fall by the sword, and hee that remaineth and is besieged, shall dye by the famine: thus will I accomplish my wrath vpon them. 13 Then ye shall knowe, that I am ye Lord, when their slaine men shalbe among their idoles round about their altars, vpon euerie hie hill in al the toppes of the mountaines, and vnder euery greene tree, and vnder euerie thicke oke, which is the place where they did offer sweete sauour to all their idoles. 14 So will I stretch mine hand vpon them, and make the lande waste, and desolate from the wildernes vnto Diblath in all their habitations, and they shall know, that I am the Lord.