Ezekiel 6-7
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 6
Against the Mountains of Israel. 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:(A) 3 You shall say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys:(B) Pay attention! I am bringing a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.[a] 4 Your altars shall be laid waste, your incense stands smashed, and I will throw your slain down in front of your idols. 5 Yes, I will lay the corpses of the Israelites in front of their idols, and scatter your bones around your altars.[b](C) 6 Wherever you live, cities shall be ruined and high places laid waste, in order that your altars be laid waste and devastated, your idols broken and smashed, your incense altars hacked to pieces, and whatever you have made wiped out.(D) 7 The slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the Lord.[c](E) 8 But I will spare some of you from the sword to live as refugees among the nations when you are scattered to foreign lands. 9 Then your refugees will remember me among the nations to which they have been exiled, after I have broken their lusting hearts that turned away from me and their eyes that lusted after idols. They will loathe themselves for all the evil they have done, for all their abominations.(F) 10 Then they shall know that I the Lord did not threaten in vain to inflict this evil on them.
11 Thus says the Lord God: Clap your hands, stamp your feet,[d] and cry “Alas!” for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! They shall fall by the sword, starvation, and disease.(G) 12 Those far off shall die of disease, those nearby shall fall by the sword, and those who survive and are spared shall perish by starvation; thus will I spend my fury upon them. 13 They shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain lie among their idols, all around their altars, on every high hill and mountaintop, beneath every green tree and leafy oak[e]—any place they offer sweet-smelling oblations to all their idols.(H) 14 I will stretch out my hand against them; I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Riblah,[f] wherever they live. Thus they shall know that I am the Lord.(I)
Chapter 7
The End Has Come. 1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 Son of man, now say: Thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel: An end! The end comes upon the four corners of the land!(J) 3 Now the end is upon you; I will unleash my anger against you, judge you according to your ways, and hold against you all your abominations. 4 My eye will not spare you, nor will I have pity; but I will hold your conduct against you, since your abominations remain within you; then shall you know that I am the Lord.(K)
5 Thus says the Lord God: Evil upon evil! See it coming! 6 An end is coming, the end is coming; it is ripe for you! See it coming! 7 The crisis has come for you who dwell in the land! The time has come, near is the day: panic, no rejoicing on the mountains.(L) 8 Soon now I will pour out my fury upon you and spend my anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and hold against you all your abominations.(M) 9 My eye will not spare, nor will I take pity; I will hold your conduct against you since your abominations remain within you, then you shall know that it is I, the Lord, who strikes.(N)
10 The day is here! Look! it is coming! The crisis has come! Lawlessness is blooming, insolence budding; 11 the violent have risen up to wield a scepter of wickedness. But none of them shall remain; none of their crowd, none of their wealth, for none of them are innocent. 12 [g]The time has come, the day dawns. The buyer must not rejoice, nor the seller mourn, for wrath is coming upon all the throng.(O) 13 Assuredly, the seller shall not regain what was sold, as long as they all live; for the vision is for the whole crowd: it shall not be revoked! Yes, because of their guilt, they shall not hold on to life. 14 They will sound the trumpet and get everything ready, but no one will go out to battle, for my wrath weighs upon all the crowd.
15 The sword is outside; disease and hunger are within. Whoever is in the fields will die by the sword; whoever is in the city disease and hunger will devour.(P) 16 If their survivors flee, they will die on the mountains, moaning like doves of the valley on account of their guilt. 17 All their hands will hang limp, and all their knees[h] turn to water.(Q) 18 (R)They put on sackcloth, horror clothes them; shame is on all their faces, all their heads are shaved bald.[i] 19 They fling their silver into the streets, and their gold is considered unclean.(S) Their silver and gold cannot save them on the day of the Lord’s wrath. They cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their bellies, for it has been the occasion of their sin. 20 [j]In their beautiful ornaments they took pride; out of them they made their abominable images, their detestable things. For this reason I will make them unclean.(T) 21 I will hand them over as spoils to foreigners, as plunder to the wicked of the earth, so that they may defile them. 22 I will turn my face away from them. My treasure will be defiled; the violent will enter and defile it.(U) 23 They will wreak slaughter, for the land is filled with bloodshed and the city with violence.(V) 24 I will bring in the worst of the nations to take possession of their houses. I will put an end to their proud strength,[k] and their sanctuaries will be defiled.(W) 25 When anguish comes, they will seek peace, but there is none.(X) 26 Disaster after disaster, rumor upon rumor. They keep seeking a vision from the prophet; instruction from the priest is missing, and counsel from the elders.(Y) 27 The king mourns, the prince is terror-stricken, the hands of the common people tremble. I will deal with them according to their ways, and according to their judgments I will judge them. They shall know that I am the Lord.
Footnotes
- 6:3 High places: raised platforms usually built on hills outside towns for making sacrifices to the Lord or to Canaanite deities. They became synonymous with places of idolatry after the centralization of worship in the Jerusalem Temple.
- 6:5 Scatter your bones…altars: the bones of the dead defiled a place; cf. 2 Kgs 23:14.
- 6:7 You shall know that I am the Lord: this formula is repeated after most of Ezekiel’s oracles from this point on. Whatever happens to Israel happens at the Lord’s command; because the Lord uses the nations to punish or reward Israel for its behavior, Israel will learn that its God has sole rule over the nations and the universe, and will acknowledge that rule in obedience.
- 6:11 Clap your hands, stamp your feet: these gestures may express grief, even horror, at Israel’s infidelities; in 25:6, they are signs of gloating.
- 6:13 Every green tree and leafy oak: trees often identified with fertility deities and the “tree of life”; sacred groves had a long history in Palestine and throughout the Mediterranean basin as places of worship; cf. Dt 12:2.
- 6:14 From the wilderness to Riblah: the whole land, from the far south to the far north.
- 7:12–13 Normal affairs will cease to have any meaning in view of the disaster that is to come.
- 7:17 Hands…knees: image of profound terror; loss of control of body movement and functions.
- 7:18 Shaved bald: shaving the head was a sign of mourning.
- 7:20 Assyrian wall paintings show that statues of deities were often cast in precious metals and then decorated with jewelry. Cf. Is 40:19–20; 41:6–7; 44:9–20.
- 7:24 Proud strength: misplaced trust in the might and power of their kings and army. Cf. v. 22; 33:28 and related ideas in Is 2:12; 10:12; 13:11; Jer 48:29; Ez 24:21; 30:18.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.