Ezekiel, 6

1. Thus the word of the LORD came to me:

1. The word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,

2. Son of man, turn toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them:

2. 'Son of man, turn towards the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.

3. Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD. Thus says the Lord GOD (to the mountains and hills, the ravines and valleys): See, I am bringing a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.

3. Say, "Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh. The Lord Yahweh says this to mountains and hills and ravines and valleys: Look, I am going to summon the sword against you and destroy your high places.

4. Your altars shall be laid waste, your incense stands shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain ones before your idols;

4. Your altars will be wrecked, and your incense burners smashed; I shall fling your butchered inhabitants down in front of your foul idols;

5. I will scatter their bones all around your altars.

5. I shall lay the corpses of the Israelites in front of their foul idols and scatter their bones all round your altars.

6. In all your dwelling places cities shall be made desolate and high places laid waste, so that your altars will be made desolate and laid waste, your idols broken and removed, and your incense stands smashed to bits.

6. Wherever you live, the towns will be destroyed and the high places wrecked, to the ruin and wrecking of your altars, the shattering and abolition of your foul idols, the smashing of your incense burners and the utter destruction of all your works.

7. (The slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the LORD.

7. As the butchered fall about you, you will know that I am Yahweh.

8. I have warned you.) When some of your people have escaped to other nations from the sword, and have been scattered over the foreign lands,

8. "But I shall spare some of you to escape the sword among the nations, when you have been dispersed in their lands;

9. then those who have escaped will remember me among the nations to which they have been exiled, after I have broken their adulterous hearts that turned away from me (and their eyes which lusted after idols). They shall loathe themselves because of their evil deeds, all their abominations.

9. and your survivors will remember me among the nations where they are held captive, since I shall have broken their adulterous hearts for having deserted me, and destroyed their eyes for having turned adulterously towards their foul idols. They will loathe themselves for all the wrong they have caused by their loathsome practices.

10. Then they shall know that it was not in vain that I, the LORD, threatened to inflict this calamity upon them.

10. Then they will know that I am Yahweh and that I was not talking lightly when I said that I would inflict these disasters on them."

11. Thus says the Lord GOD: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, and cry "Alas!" because of all the abominations of the house of Israel, for which they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.

11. 'The Lord Yahweh says this, "Clap your hands, stamp your feet, and say: Alas for all the loathsome sins of the House of Israel, which is about to fall by sword, famine and plague!

12. He that is far off shall die of pestilence, he that is near shall fall by the sword, and he that is besieged shall perish by famine; so will I spend my fury upon them.

12. Far off, they will die by plague; near at hand they will fall by the sword; and any who survive or are spared will die of famine. This is how I shall sate my fury on them.

13. Then shall they know that I am the LORD, when their slain shall lie amid their idols, all about their altars, on every high hill and mountaintop, beneath every green tree and leafy oak, wherever they offered appeasing odors to any of their gods.

13. Then you will know that I am Yahweh, when their butchered corpses lie among their foul idols, all round their altars, on every high hill, on every mountain top, under every green tree, under every leafy oak, wherever they offer a smell pleasing to all their idols.

14. I will stretch out my hand against them, and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the desert to Riblah; thus shall they know that I am the LORD.

14. I shall point my finger at them and reduce the country to an empty wasteland from the desert to Riblah, everywhere they live, and they will know that I am Yahweh." '