Yahweh Will Destroy Israel’s Pagan Altars

1And the word of Yahweh came to me saying, 2“Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them 3and say, ‘Mountains of Israel, hear the word of Lord Yahweh! Thus says Lord Yahweh to the mountains, the hills, the ravines, and the valleys: “Behold, I Myself am going to bring a sword on you, and I will destroy your high places. 4So your altars will become desolate, and your incense altars will be broken; and I will make your slain fall in front of your idols. 5I will also put the dead bodies of the sons of Israel in front of their idols; and I will scatter your bones all around your altars. 6In all your places of habitation, cities will become waste, and the high places will be desolate, that your altars may become waste and [†]desolate, your idols may be broken and cease, your incense altars may be cut in pieces, and your works may be blotted out. 7The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am Yahweh.

8“However, I will leave a remnant, for you will have those who escaped the sword among the nations when you are scattered among the lands. 9Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have been broken over their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols; and they will loathe themselves to their own faces for the evils which they have done, for all their abominations. 10Then they will know that I am Yahweh; I have not said in vain that I would do this calamitous evil against them.”’

11“Thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Strike your hands together, stamp your foot and say, “Alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, which will fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague! 12He who is far off will die by the plague, and he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged will die by the famine. Thus will I spend My wrath on them. 13Then you will know that I am Yahweh when their slain are among their idols all around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak—the places where they [†]offered a soothing aroma to all their idols. 14So throughout all their habitations I will stretch out My hand against them and make the land more desolate and desecrated than the wilderness toward Diblah; thus they will know that I am Yahweh.”’”