What does Ezechiel Chapter 6 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Mountain altars face destruction. Captive survivors remember and regret. Gestures precede Deblatha desolation.

Chapter breakdown

Ezechiel 6 receives a word against Israel's mountains, hills, rocks and valleys. Sword destroys high places, altars fall and idols break. Slain people lie before idols and bones scatter around altars in dwelling places. Cities, temples and works are destroyed or defaced; recognition that the Lord is God accompanies the slain. Sacred pillars and the carvings' material are not specified.

Some escape the sword when scattered among nations. Captive survivors remember the Lord because he has broken their faithless hearts and eyes that pursued idols. They are displeased with themselves for their abominations and recognize that his announced evil was not spoken in vain. The wording does not say their eyes were medically cured or define self-loathing as the universal necessary foundation of conversion.

The prophet must strike with his hand, stamp with his foot and lament Israel's abominations. Those far away die of pestilence, those near fall by sword and those remaining besieged die of famine. Slain bodies lie near idols and altars on high hills and mountain tops, under woody trees and thick oaks where sweet frankincense burned. The Lord stretches out his hand to make the land desolate from the desert of Deblatha throughout dwelling places. Rotting unburied bodies, a wilderness-to-Deblatha direction and fulfilled events are not substituted for the oracle.

The story inside

Opening: Mountain altars face destruction. Development: Captive survivors remember and regret. Conclusion: Gestures precede Deblatha desolation.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Mountain altars face destruction.
2
Captive survivors remember and regret.
3
Gestures precede Deblatha desolation.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 91710–91728
6:2. Son of man set thy face towards the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them. 6:3. And say: Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God: Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, and to the rocks, and the valleys: Behold, I will bring upon you the sword, and I will destroy your high places. 6:4. And I will throw down your altars, and your idols shall be broken in pieces: and I will cast down your slain before your idols. 6:5. And I will lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel before your idols: and I will scatter your bones round about your altars, 6:6. In all your dwelling places. The cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be thrown down, and destroyed, and your altars shall be abolished, and shall be broken in pieces: and your idols shall be no more, and your temples shall be destroyed, and your works shall be defaced.
Lines 91733–91744
6:8. And I will leave in you some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when I shall have scattered you through the countries. 6:9. And they that are saved of you shall remember me amongst the nations, to which they are carried captives: because I have broken their heart that was faithless, and revolted from me: and their eyes that went a fornicating after their idols: and they shall be displeased with themselves because of the evils which they have committed in all their abominations. 6:10. And they shall know that I the Lord have not spoken in vain that I would do this evil to them.
Lines 91746–91764
6:11. Thus saith the Lord God: Strike with thy hand and stamp with thy foot, and say: Alas, for all the abominations of the evils of the house of Israel: for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. 6:12. He that is far off shall die of the pestilence: and he that is near, shall fall by the sword: and he that remaineth, and is besieged, shall die by the famine: and I will accomplish my indignation upon them. 6:13. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when your slain shall be amongst your idols, round about your altars, in every high hill, and on all the tops of mountains, and under every woody tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they burnt sweet smelling frankincense to all their idols. 6:14. And I will stretch forth my hand upon them: and I will make the land desolate, and abandoned from the desert of Deblatha in all their dwelling places: and they shall know that I am the Lord.