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Prophecy against Israel’s Idolatry

¹ The word of the Lord came to me: ² “Son of man, face the mountains of Israel^(C1) and prophesy against them. ³ You are to say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! This is what the Lord God says to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.^{(C1) 4} Your altars will be desolated and your shrines^(F1) smashed. I will throw down your slain in front of your idols. ⁵ I will lay the corpses of the Israelites in front of their idols and scatter your bones around your altars. ⁶ Wherever you live the cities will be in ruins and the high places will be desolate, so that your altars will lie in ruins and be desecrated,^(F1) your idols smashed and obliterated, your shrines cut down, and what you have made wiped out. ⁷ The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the Lord.

⁸ “Yet I will leave a remnant when you are scattered among the nations, for throughout the countries there will be some of you who will escape the sword.^{(C1) 9} Then your survivors will remember me among the nations where they are taken captive,^(C1) how I was crushed by their promiscuous hearts that turned away from me and by their eyes that lusted after their idols.^(C2) They will loathe themselves because of the evil things they did,^(C3) their detestable actions of every kind. ¹⁰ And they will know that I am the Lord; I did not threaten to bring this disaster on them without a reason.

Lament over the Fall of Jerusalem

¹¹ “This is what the Lord God says: Clap your hands, stamp your feet,^(C1) and cry out over all the evil and detestable practices of the house of Israel, who will fall by the sword, famine, and plague.^{(C2) 12} The one who is far off will die by plague; the one who is near will fall by the sword; and the one who remains and is spared^(F1) will die of famine. In this way I will exhaust my wrath on them.^{(C1) 13} You will all know that I am the Lord when their slain lie among their idols around their altars,^(C1) on every high hill,^(C2) on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and every leafy oak—the places where they offered pleasing aromas to all their idols. ¹⁴ I will stretch out my hand against them,^(C1) and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah.^(F1) Then they will know that I am the Lord.”