Ezekiel 6

Ezekiel 6 ESV

1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, 3 and say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. 4 Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain before your idols. 5 And I will lay the dead bodies of the people of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars. 6 Wherever you dwell, the cities shall be waste and the high places ruined, so that your altars will be waste and ruined, your idols broken and destroyed, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out. 7 And the slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the Lord. 8 “Yet I will leave some of you alive. When you have among the nations some who escape the sword, and when you are scattered through the countries, 9 then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken over their whoring heart that has departed from me and over their eyes that go whoring after their idols. And they will be loathsome in their own sight for the evils that they have committed, for all their abominations. 10 And they shall know that I am the Lord. I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them.” 11 Thus says the Lord God: “Clap your hands and stamp your foot and say, Alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. 12 He who is far off shall die of pestilence, and he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who is left and is preserved shall die of famine. Thus I will spend my fury upon them. 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak, wherever they offered pleasing aroma to all their idols. 14 And I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land desolate and waste, in all their dwelling places, from the wilderness to Riblah. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

1-2

Ch. Starts with a command to Ezekiel to face Jerusalem and prophesy against them

specifically the mountains of Israel are mentioned

not much else is left out in the next few verses

3-7

Canaanite religious practices were infiltrating Israel rapidly

Israel could only worship God in His temple in Jerusalem

Israel set up shrines to false gods all over the land

2 Kings 21:2–6 “2 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. 4 And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem will I put my name.” 5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. 6 And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.”

by addressing the land Ezekiel was focusing on the immoral use of the land

God would destroy the high places

typically this was a place of worship on a hill or a mountain

thought to bring worshippers closer to their gods

could include a temple but was mostly just altars for sacrifices

High places were in Canaan before Israel arrived

In Numbers 33:52 “52 then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places.”

We see the command to destroy these altars

before the construction of the temple in Jerusalem

worship at high places was allowed due to no central place of worship

Israel of course could only worship the one true God

Samuel and Solomon worshiped at high places

Once the temple was complete worshipping at high places was yet again discouraged

Kings who tried to follow god would destroy these high places

those who didn’t would rebuild them

At this point with Ezekiel

False gods were being worshiped heavily at these high places

including animal sacrifice

incense altars

physical representations of the gods

Ezekiel says God’s judgment would be swift and sure

the altars would be destroyed and so would those who built them

8-10

Here we see God keeping the promise to Israel alive

He would not break covenant

yet again He would leave a remnant so that the covenant could be fulfilled

those who are left will recognize their faults and be loathsome of their mistakes

they too will be punished

punished in their own misery

11-14

Ezekiel is then told to clap his hands and stomp his feet

usually either sign of rejoicing or derision

due to the state of the address above it is more than likely an act of derision

derision being ridicule or mockery

often times around these altars were large oak trees

these would signify fertility to the worshipers

God is covering all of the bases

no one will escape His wrath for the shortcoming of the nation of Israel

Manuscripts differ between Diblah or Riblah

hebrew letters are very similar

we do not have a record of a diblah in Israel but Riblah would indicate from the southern end of the desert of Israel to the northern end in of Riblah

meaning no one would outrun

The suffering of Israel is not in vain

They would suffer and recognize the Lord

The Lord would be praised through this