Ezekiel 6:2
New International Version
“Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel; prophesy against them

New Living Translation
“Son of man, turn and face the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.

English Standard Version
“Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,

Berean Standard Bible
“Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.

King James Bible
Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,

New King James Version
“Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,

New American Standard Bible
“Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them

NASB 1995
“Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them

NASB 1977
“Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,

Legacy Standard Bible
“Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them

Amplified Bible
“Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them,

Christian Standard Bible
“Son of man, face the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Son of man, turn your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.

American Standard Version
Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy unto them,

Contemporary English Version
Ezekiel, son of man, face the hills of Israel and tell them:

English Revised Version
Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy unto them,

GOD'S WORD® Translation
"Son of man, look toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them.

Good News Translation
"Mortal man," he said, "look toward the mountains of Israel and give them my message.

International Standard Version
"Son of Man," he said, "turn your face to oppose the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.

Majority Standard Bible
“Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.

NET Bible
"Son of man, turn toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them:

New Heart English Bible
"Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy to them,

Webster's Bible Translation
Son of man, set thy face towards the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,

World English Bible
“Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy to them,
Literal Translations
Literal Standard Version
“Son of man, set your face toward mountains of Israel, and prophesy concerning them:

Young's Literal Translation
'Son of man, set thy face unto mountains of Israel, and prophesy concerning them:

Smith's Literal Translation
Son of man, set thy face to the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,
Catholic Translations
Douay-Rheims Bible
Son of man, set thy face towards the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them.

Catholic Public Domain Version
“Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and you shall prophesy against them,

New American Bible
Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them:

New Revised Standard Version
O mortal, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,
Translations from Aramaic
Lamsa Bible
Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them,

Peshitta Holy Bible Translated
“Son of man, set your face to the mountains of Israel and prophesy over them
OT Translations
JPS Tanakh 1917
Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Son of man, set thy face against the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them;

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Judgment Against Idolatry
1And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2“Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them. 3You are to say: ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.…

Cross References
Jeremiah 25:15-29
This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from My hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink from it. / And they will drink and stagger and go out of their minds, because of the sword that I will send among them.” / So I took the cup from the LORD’s hand and made all the nations drink from it, each one to whom the LORD had sent me, ...

Isaiah 2:12-22
For the Day of the LORD of Hosts will come against all the proud and lofty, against all that is exalted—it will be humbled— / against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up, against all the oaks of Bashan, / against all the tall mountains, against all the high hills, ...

Jeremiah 1:14-16
Then the LORD said to me, “Disaster from the north will be poured out on all who live in the land. / For I am about to summon all the clans and kingdoms of the north,” declares the LORD. “Their kings will come and set up their thrones at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem. They will attack all her surrounding walls and all the other cities of Judah. / I will pronounce My judgments against them for all their wickedness, because they have forsaken Me, and they have burned incense to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands.

Amos 3:1-2
Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt: / “Only you have I known from all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”

Isaiah 13:1-13
This is the burden against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz received: / Raise a banner on a barren hilltop; call aloud to them. Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles. / I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have even summoned My warriors to execute My wrath and exult in My triumph. ...

Jeremiah 4:5-8
Announce in Judah, proclaim in Jerusalem, and say: “Blow the ram’s horn throughout the land. Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble yourselves and let us flee to the fortified cities.’ / Raise a signal flag toward Zion. Seek refuge! Do not delay! For I am bringing disaster from the north, and terrible destruction. / A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his lair to lay waste your land. Your cities will be reduced to ruins and lie uninhabited. ...

Hosea 5:1-5
“Hear this, O priests! Take heed, O house of Israel! Give ear, O royal house! For this judgment is against you because you have been a snare at Mizpah, a net spread out on Tabor. / The rebels are deep in slaughter; but I will chastise them all. / I know all about Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me. For now, O Ephraim, you have turned to prostitution; Israel is defiled. ...

Isaiah 34:1-4
Come near, O nations, to listen; pay attention, O peoples. Let the earth hear, and all that fills it, the world and all that springs from it. / The LORD is angry with all the nations and furious with all their armies. He will devote them to destruction; He will give them over to slaughter. / Their slain will be left unburied, and the stench of their corpses will rise; the mountains will flow with their blood. ...

Jeremiah 6:1-8
“Run for cover, O sons of Benjamin; flee from Jerusalem! Sound the ram’s horn in Tekoa; send up a signal over Beth-haccherem, for disaster looms from the north, even great destruction. / Though she is beautiful and delicate, I will destroy the Daughter of Zion. / Shepherds and their flocks will come against her; they will pitch their tents all around her, each tending his own portion: ...

Amos 9:1-4
I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said: “Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake. Topple them on the heads of all the people, and I will kill the rest with the sword. None of those who flee will get away; none of the fugitives will escape. / Though they dig down to Sheol, from there My hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, from there I will pull them down. / Though they hide themselves atop Carmel, there I will track them and seize them; and though they hide from Me at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite them. ...

Matthew 24:15-22
So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by the prophet Daniel (let the reader understand), / then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. / Let no one on the housetop come down to retrieve anything from his house. ...

Revelation 6:12-17
And I watched as the Lamb opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like sackcloth of goat hair, and the whole moon turned blood red, / and the stars of the sky fell to the earth like unripe figs dropping from a tree shaken by a great wind. / The sky receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place. ...

Luke 21:20-24
But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, you will know that her desolation is near. / Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country stay out of the city. / For these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. ...

Revelation 18:1-8
After this I saw another angel descending from heaven with great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his glory. / And he cried out in a mighty voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable beast. / All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance of her luxury.” ...

Mark 13:14-20
So when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. / Let no one on the housetop go back inside to retrieve anything from his house. / And let no one in the field return for his cloak. ...


Treasury of Scripture

Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,

set

Ezekiel 4:7
Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.

Ezekiel 13:17
Likewise, thou son of man, set thy face against the daughters of thy people, which prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy thou against them,

Ezekiel 20:46
Son of man, set thy face toward the south, and drop thy word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field;

the mountains

Ezekiel 19:9
And they put him in ward in chains, and brought him to the king of Babylon: they brought him into holds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.

Ezekiel 33:28
For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through.

Ezekiel 34:14
I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.

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Ezekiel 6
1. The judgment of Israel for their idolatry
8. A remnant shall be blessed
11. The faithful are exhorted to lament their abominations and calamities














Son of man
This phrase is a frequent designation for Ezekiel, used over 90 times in the book. In Hebrew, it is "ben adam," which literally means "son of Adam" or "son of humanity." This term emphasizes Ezekiel's humanity and his role as a representative of the people. It underscores the humility and frailty of the prophet, contrasting with the divine messages he is tasked to deliver. In a broader biblical context, "Son of Man" is also a messianic title used by Jesus in the New Testament, highlighting both His humanity and His divine mission.

set your face
The Hebrew phrase "sim panim" implies a determined and resolute action. It suggests a steadfastness and unwavering focus on the task at hand. In the context of prophetic literature, setting one's face against something indicates a divine mandate to confront and challenge. This phrase conveys the seriousness and gravity of the message Ezekiel is about to deliver, as he is called to confront the idolatry and unfaithfulness of Israel.

against the mountains of Israel
The mountains of Israel are significant both geographically and spiritually. Geographically, they refer to the high places where idolatrous practices were often conducted. Spiritually, mountains in biblical literature often symbolize places of encounter with God, such as Mount Sinai or Mount Zion. However, in this context, they represent the high places of idolatry and false worship that have led Israel astray. The mountains are personified as recipients of judgment, highlighting the pervasive nature of Israel's unfaithfulness.

and prophesy against them
The act of prophesying "against" indicates a message of judgment and warning. The Hebrew word for prophesy, "naba," involves speaking forth a message from God, often with the connotation of divine inspiration and authority. Ezekiel's role is to be the mouthpiece of God, delivering a message that calls for repentance and warns of impending judgment. This phrase underscores the seriousness of Israel's sin and the urgent need for them to return to the covenantal faithfulness expected by God.

(2) Toward the mountains of Israel.--It is not uncommon to address prophetic utterances to inanimate objects as a poetic way of representing the people. (Comp. Ezekiel 36:1; Micah 6:2, &c.) The mountains are especially mentioned as being the chosen places of idolatrous worship. (See Deuteronomy 12:2; 2Kings 17:10-11; Jeremiah 2:20; Jeremiah 3:6; Hosea 4:13.) Baal, the sun-god, was the idol especially worshipped upon the hills. . . . Verses 2, 3. - Set thy face toward the mountains, etc. The formula is eminently characteristic of Ezekiel. We have had it with a different verb in the Hebrew, in Ezekiel 4:3. It will meet us again in Ezekiel 20:46; Ezekiel 21:2; Ezekiel 25:2; Ezekiel 28:21; Ezekiel 29:2; Ezekiel 35:2; Ezekiel 38:2. In this case it probably implied an outward act, like that of Daniel, when he, with a very different purpose, looked towards Jerusalem (Daniel 6:10). In contrast with the widespread plains of Mesopotamia in which Ezekiel found himself, this was the chief characteristic of the land which he had left. The mountains represent the whole country, including the rivers (Revised Version, here and throughout, renders the Hebrew "water courses," to distinguish it from the "river" (nahar) of Ezekiel 1:1, 3, et al., and the "river" (nachal) of Ezekiel 47:5. Its strict meaning is that of a "ravine" or "gorge," the wady of modern Arabic, through which a stream rushes in the winter, but is dried up in the summer). All the localities are named as having been alike polluted by the worship of idols For mountains and hills as the scenes of such worship, see Deuteronomy 12:2; 2 Kings 17:10, 11; Jeremiah 2:20; Jeremiah 3:6; Hosea 4:13; for the ravines and valleys, 2 Kings 23:10 and Jeremiah 7:31 (the Valley of Hinnom); and more generally, Isaiah 57:5, 6. The same combination meets us in ch. 35:8; 36:5, 6. In his address to the mountains, Ezekiel follows in the footsteps of Micah 6:2. I will destroy your high places. The words point to the most persistent, though not the worst, of all the idolatries by which the worship of Jehovah as the God of Israel had been overshadowed. The words of Ezekiel are identical with those of Leo, 26:30. The Bamoth, or high places, of Baal, are mentioned in Numbers 22:41 and Joshua 13:17, and are probably identical with the high places of Arnon in Numbers 21:28. There they are named only incidentally, not in the way of prohibition or condemnation. So, in like manner, in Deuteronomy 32:13 and Deuteronomy 33:29, if the technical sense exists at all, it is referred to only as included in the triumph of the worship of Jehovah over the hill fortresses as the sanctuaries of other gods. The absence of the word from the Book of Judges is difficult to explain, as it was precisely in that period of the history of Israel, irregular and unsettled, that we should have expected to find the people adopting the cultus of their neighbours. A probable solution of the problem is that, so long as the tabernacle and the ark were at Shiloh, that was so pre-eminently the centre of the worship of Jehovah, that the people were not tempted to forsake it, or to set up the worship upon the high places side by side with it. When, after the capture of the ark, Shiloh was a deserted sanctuary, we meet for the first time with the worship of the high places, not as a thing forbidden, but as sanctioned by the presence of Samuel, as the judge and prophet of the people (1 Samuel 9:12-14; 1 Samuel 10:5), the "high place" in the last passage being, apparently, the same as "the hill of God." In 2 Samuel 1:19, possibly from the Book of Jashar, we have the elder, less technical sense of Deuteronomy 32:12 and Deuteronomy 33:19. It would seem, accordingly, as if Samuel had acted on a policy like that of the counsel which Gregory I gave Augustine. He found the worship of the high places adopted by the Israelites from the neighbouring nations. He sought to turn them to the worship of Jehovah. So the writer of 1 Kings 3:2 records the fact that "the people sacrificed in high places," because as yet, though the ark had been brought to Jerusalem, "there was no house built unto the Name of Jehovah until those days," and that Solomon himself also "sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places." At the chief of these, the great high place of Gibeon, Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings, and had the memorable vision in which he made choice of wisdom rather than length of days, or riches and honour, returning from it, as though the cultus of the two places stood nearly on an equal footing, to offer other burnt offerings before the ark of God at Jerusalem (1 Kings 3:3-15). With the erection of the temple the state of things was, in some measure, altered, and the temple was the one legitimate sanctuary. When the ten tribes revolted under Jeroboam, they were, of course, cut off from the temple services, and the king accordingly, besides the calves at Bethel and Dan, set up high places, with priests not of the sons of Aaron, in the cities of Samaria (1 Kings 12:31; 1 Kings 13:32). From that time forward the high places are always mentioned by both historians and prophets in a tone of condemnation, whether they were in Israel or Judah (1 Kings 14:4), but they had become so deeply rooted in the reverence of the people that even the better kings of Judah, who warred against open idolatry, like Asa (1 Kings 15:14), Jehoshaphat (1 Kings 22:43), Jehoash (2 Kings 12:3), Amaziah (2 Kings 14:4), Azariah (2 Kings 15:4), left them undisturbed; while in the history of the northern kingdom the cultus of the Bamoth reigned paramount (2 Kings 17, passim). It was not till Hezekiah, presumably under Isaiah's influence, removed the "high places" (2 Kings 18:4) that we find any serious attempt to put them down. They had been tolerated, apparently, because, as in Rabshakeh's taunt (2 Kings 18:22), they were nominally connected with the worship of Jehovah. Under the confluent polytheism of Manasseh they naturally reappeared (2 Kings 21:3: 2 Chronicles 33:3). The reformation of Josiah was more thorough (2 Kings 23, passim; 2 Chronicles 34:3), and was probably stimulated by Hilkiah and Huldah. The discovery of the book of the Law (probably Deuteronomy), with its condemnations of mountain sanctuaries, though, as we have seen, the Bamoth were not prohibited by name, roused the zeal of the prophets, especially of the priest prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and when the Bamoth-cultus revived, after the death of Josiah, the former was strong in his protests (Jeremiah 7:31, et al.), all the more so because now, as in the earlier stages of their history, they had become high places of Baal (Jeremiah 19:5; 32:55), and were associated with abominations like those of the worship of Moloch in the Valley of Hinnom. So it was that Ezekiel, writing on the banks of the Chebar, is now led to place them in the forefront of the sins of his people.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
“Son
בֶּן־ (ben-)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 1121: A son

of man,
אָדָ֕ם (’ā·ḏām)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 120: Ruddy, a human being

turn
שִׂ֥ים (śîm)
Verb - Qal - Imperative - masculine singular
Strong's 7760: Put -- to put, place, set

your face
פָּנֶ֖יךָ (pā·ne·ḵā)
Noun - common plural construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 6440: The face

toward
אֶל־ (’el-)
Preposition
Strong's 413: Near, with, among, to

the mountains
הָרֵ֣י (hā·rê)
Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 2022: Mountain, hill, hill country

of Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל (yiś·rā·’êl)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3478: Israel -- 'God strives', another name of Jacob and his desc

and prophesy
וְהִנָּבֵ֖א (wə·hin·nā·ḇê)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Nifal - Imperative - masculine singular
Strong's 5012: To prophesy, speak, by inspiration

against them.
אֲלֵיהֶֽם׃ (’ă·lê·hem)
Preposition | third person masculine plural
Strong's 413: Near, with, among, to


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OT Prophets: Ezekiel 6:2 Son of man set your face toward (Ezek. Eze Ezk)
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