Ezekiel 6:1–38:23

Judgment against Israel’s Mountains

Again a message came to me from the Lord: ²“Son of man, turn and face the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them. ³Proclaim this message from the Sovereign Lord against the mountains of Israel. This is what the Sovereign Lord says to the mountains and hills and to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring war upon you, and I will smash your pagan shrines. ⁴All your altars will be demolished, and your places of worship will be destroyed. I will kill your people in front of your idols. ⁵I will lay your corpses in front of your idols and scatter your bones around your altars. ⁶Wherever you live there will be desolation, and I will destroy your pagan shrines. Your altars will be demolished, your idols will be smashed, your places of worship will be torn down, and all the religious objects you have made will be destroyed. ⁷The place will be littered with corpses, and you will know that I alone am the Lord.

⁸“But I will let a few of my people escape destruction, and they will be scattered among the nations of the world. ⁹Then when they are exiled among the nations, they will remember me. They will recognize how hurt I am by their unfaithful hearts and lustful eyes that long for their idols. Then at last they will hate themselves for all their detestable sins. ¹⁰They will know that I alone am the Lord and that I was serious when I said I would bring this calamity on them.

¹¹“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Clap your hands in horror, and stamp your feet. Cry out because of all the detestable sins the people of Israel have committed. Now they are going to die from war and famine and disease. ¹²Disease will strike down those who are far away in exile. War will destroy those who are nearby. And anyone who survives will be killed by famine. So at last I will spend my fury on them. ¹³They will know that I am the Lord when their dead lie scattered among their idols and altars on every hill and mountain and under every green tree and every great shade tree—the places where they offered sacrifices to their idols. ¹⁴I will crush them and make their cities desolate from the wilderness in the south to Riblah in the north. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

Chapter 7

The Coming of the End

Then this message came to me from the Lord: ²“Son of man, this is what the Sovereign Lord says to Israel:

“The end is here!

Wherever you look—

east, west, north, or south—

your land is finished.

³No hope remains,

for I will unleash my anger against you.

I will call you to account

for all your detestable sins.

⁴I will turn my eyes away and show no pity.

I will repay you for all your detestable sins.

Then you will know that I am the Lord.

⁵“This is what the Sovereign Lord says:

Disaster after disaster

is coming your way!

⁶The end has come.

It has finally arrived.

Your final doom is waiting!

⁷O people of Israel, the day of your destruction is dawning.

The time has come; the day of trouble is near.

Shouts of anguish will be heard on the mountains,

not shouts of joy.

⁸Soon I will pour out my fury on you

and unleash my anger against you.

I will call you to account

for all your detestable sins.

⁹I will turn my eyes away and show no pity.

I will repay you for all your detestable sins.

Then you will know that it is I, the Lord,

who is striking the blow.

¹⁰“The day of judgment is here;

your destruction awaits!

The people’s wickedness and pride

have blossomed to full flower.

¹¹Their violence has grown into a rod

that will beat them for their wickedness.

None of these proud and wicked people will survive.

All their wealth and prestige will be swept away.

¹²Yes, the time has come;

the day is here!

Buyers should not rejoice over bargains,

nor sellers grieve over losses,

for all of them will fall

under my terrible anger.

¹³Even if the merchants survive,

they will never return to their business.

For what God has said applies to everyone—

it will not be changed!

Not one person whose life is twisted by sin

will ever recover.

The Desolation of Israel

¹⁴“The trumpet calls Israel’s army to mobilize,

but no one listens,

for my fury is against them all.

¹⁵There is war outside the city

and disease and famine within.

Those outside the city walls

will be killed by enemy swords.

Those inside the city

will die of famine and disease.

¹⁶The survivors who escape to the mountains

will moan like doves, weeping for their sins.

¹⁷Their hands will hang limp,

their knees will be weak as water.

¹⁸They will dress themselves in burlap;

horror and shame will cover them.

They will shave their heads

in sorrow and remorse.

¹⁹“They will throw their money in the streets,

tossing it out like worthless trash.

Their silver and gold won’t save them

on that day of the Lord’s anger.

It will neither satisfy nor feed them,

for their greed can only trip them up.

²⁰They were proud of their beautiful jewelry

and used it to make detestable idols and vile images.

Therefore, I will make all their wealth

disgusting to them.

²¹I will give it as plunder to foreigners,

to the most wicked of nations,

and they will defile it.

²²I will turn my eyes from them

as these robbers invade and defile my treasured land.

²³“Prepare chains for my people,

for the land is bloodied by terrible crimes.

Jerusalem is filled with violence.

²⁴I will bring the most ruthless of nations

to occupy their homes.

I will break down their proud fortresses

and defile their sanctuaries.

²⁵Terror and trembling will overcome my people.

They will look for peace but not find it.

²⁶Calamity will follow calamity;

rumor will follow rumor.

They will look in vain

for a vision from the prophets.

They will receive no teaching from the priests

and no counsel from the leaders.

²⁷The king and the prince will stand helpless,

weeping in despair,

and the people’s hands

will tremble with fear.

I will bring on them

the evil they have done to others,

and they will receive the punishment

they so richly deserve.

Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

Chapter 8

Idolatry in the Temple

Then on September 17, during the sixth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, while the leaders of Judah were in my home, the Sovereign Lord took hold of me. ²I saw a figure that appeared to be a man. From what appeared to be his waist down, he looked like a burning flame. From the waist up he looked like gleaming amber. ³He reached out what seemed to be a hand and took me by the hair. Then the Spirit lifted me up into the sky and transported me to Jerusalem in a vision from God. I was taken to the north gate of the inner courtyard of the Temple, where there is a large idol that has made the Lord very jealous. ⁴Suddenly, the glory of the God of Israel was there, just as I had seen it before in the valley.

⁵Then the Lord said to me, “Son of man, look toward the north.” So I looked, and there to the north, beside the entrance to the gate near the altar, stood the idol that had made the Lord so jealous.

⁶“Son of man,” he said, “do you see what they are doing? Do you see the detestable sins the people of Israel are committing to drive me from my Temple? But come, and you will see even more detestable sins than these!” ⁷Then he brought me to the door of the Temple courtyard, where I could see a hole in the wall. ⁸He said to me, “Now, son of man, dig into the wall.” So I dug into the wall and found a hidden doorway.

⁹“Go in,” he said, “and see the wicked and detestable sins they are committing in there!” ¹⁰So I went in and saw the walls covered with engravings of all kinds of crawling animals and detestable creatures. I also saw the various idols worshiped by the people of Israel. ¹¹Seventy leaders of Israel were standing there with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan in the center. Each of them held an incense burner, from which a cloud of incense rose above their heads.

¹²Then the Lord said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the leaders of Israel are doing with their idols in dark rooms? They are saying, ‘The Lord doesn’t see us; he has deserted our land!’ ” ¹³Then the Lord added, “Come, and I will show you even more detestable sins than these!”

¹⁴He brought me to the north gate of the Lord’s Temple, and some women were sitting there, weeping for the god Tammuz. ¹⁵“Have you seen this?” he asked. “But I will show you even more detestable sins than these!”

¹⁶Then he brought me into the inner courtyard of the Lord’s Temple. At the entrance to the sanctuary, between the entry room and the bronze altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs to the sanctuary of the Lord. They were facing east, bowing low to the ground, worshiping the sun!

¹⁷“Have you seen this, son of man?” he asked. “Is it nothing to the people of Judah that they commit these detestable sins, leading the whole nation into violence, thumbing their noses at me, and provoking my anger? ¹⁸Therefore, I will respond in fury. I will neither pity nor spare them. And though they cry for mercy, I will not listen.”

Chapter 9

The Slaughter of Idolaters

Then the Lord thundered, “Bring on the men appointed to punish the city! Tell them to bring their weapons with them!” ²Six men soon appeared from the upper gate that faces north, each carrying a deadly weapon in his hand. With them was a man dressed in linen, who carried a writer’s case at his side. They all went into the Temple courtyard and stood beside the bronze altar.

³Then the glory of the God of Israel rose up from between the cherubim, where it had rested, and moved to the entrance of the Temple. And the Lord called to the man dressed in linen who was carrying the writer’s case. ⁴He said to him, “Walk through the streets of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of all who weep and sigh because of the detestable sins being committed in their city.”

⁵Then I heard the Lord say to the other men, “Follow him through the city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked. Show no mercy; have no pity! ⁶Kill them all—old and young, girls and women and little children.…