Ezekiel 6 explained: Judgment on the Hilltop Shrines

Speaking to the mountains (vv. 1-3)

Ezekiel, an exile in Babylon, is told to face the distant hills of Israel and speak to the land itself, as if the people would no longer listen. The high places were hilltop shrines for worshipping other gods, and the coming sword is the invading Babylonian army, presented here as sent by God.

Bodies before the idols (vv. 4-7)

The altars will be smashed, and the dead will lie in front of the idols they trusted, a deliberately graphic picture. Human bones made a holy place unclean, so this both ruins the shrines and shows the idols could protect no one.

A few survivors remember (vv. 8-10)

Some will survive as captives in foreign lands. There they will remember how their turning to idols wounded God, pictured as a betrayed spouse, and they will be disgusted at what they did.

Gestures of grief and anger (vv. 11-12)

Ezekiel is told to clap his hands, stamp his feet and cry out, and interpreters differ on whether this shows sorrow, outrage, or both. Disaster will reach everyone: plague for those far away, the sword for those near, and famine for those trapped in the besieged city.

Death across the whole land (vv. 13-14)

Every high hill and every leafy tree was a familiar way of naming all the places of unofficial worship, and the dead will be found at each one. The span from the southern wilderness to Diblah means the whole land, though Diblah's location is uncertain, and many scholars think it is a copying error for Riblah in the far north.

Key verse: Ezekiel 6:13

Something to think about

When something people have trusted for safety turns out to be empty, what does it take for them to look back honestly at why they trusted it?