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Ezekiel 6

God announces the destruction of Israel’s idol worship and preserves survivors who will remember him and recognize their evil.

God commands Ezekiel to address Israel’s mountains, where altars and idols stand across the land. The prophet announces that God will destroy these worship sites and leave the slain around them. War, famine, and pestilence will devastate Israel’s settlements. Within this judgment, God promises that some will survive among the nations, remember him, and loathe the evil they have done. Ezekiel must also strike his hand and stamp his foot as he announces Israel’s calamity.

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2“Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy to them,
3and say, ‘You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! The Lord GOD says to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys: “Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword on you, and I will destroy your high places.
4Your altars will become desolate, and your incense altars will be broken. I will cast down your slain men before your idols.
5I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel before their idols. I will scatter your bones around your altars.
6In all your dwelling places, the cities will be laid waste and the high places will be desolate, so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.
7The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the LORD.
8“‘“Yet I will leave a remnant, in that you will have some that escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the countries.
9Those of you that escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken with their lewd heart, which has departed from me, and with their eyes, which play the prostitute after their idols. Then they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.
10They will know that I am the LORD. I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them.”’
11“The Lord GOD says: ‘Strike with your hand, and stamp with your foot, and say, “Alas!”, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel; for they will fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.
12He who is far off will die of the pestilence. He who is near will fall by the sword. He who remains and is besieged will die by the famine. Thus I will accomplish my wrath on them.
13You will know that I am the LORD when their slain men are among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree, and under every thick oak—the places where they offered pleasant aroma to all their idols.
14I will stretch out my hand on them and make the land desolate and waste, from the wilderness toward Diblah, throughout all their habitations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Ezekiel 6:7The repeated declaration that Israel will know YHWH begins here, tying recognition of God to the announced judgment.
Ezekiel 6:9The survivors will remember God in captivity, confronting both their betrayal of him and the evil of their idol worship.
Ezekiel 6:11Ezekiel’s commanded gestures and cry mark the horror of Israel’s abominations and the deaths that will follow.
Where this chapter reaches

Leviticus and Jeremiah share Ezekiel’s warnings of sword, famine, and pestilence as judgments upon Israel, while Leviticus also describes ruined high places and bodies cast upon idols. The worship sites on hills and beneath green trees also appear in 2 Kings’ accounts of Israel’s idolatry.

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After reading the whole chapter

What do the ruined altars and bodies beside them reveal about the trust placed in idols?

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How does the survivors’ remembrance of God shape your understanding of repentance in this passage?

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Questions people ask about Ezekiel 6

Why does Ezekiel 6 prophesy against the mountains of Israel?

The mountains are addressed because they hold sites of Israel’s idol worship. The oracle also names hills, valleys, and watercourses, extending judgment across the land. Verse 13 identifies altars on high hills and beneath trees, where people offered incense to idols. These worship sites will become places of death and ruin.

Who is the remnant in Ezekiel 6?

The remnant consists of Israelites who escape the sword and survive scattered among the nations. In captivity, they will remember God and loathe the evils they committed. The chapter gives no names or number for these survivors. Their survival appears within an oracle that still announces devastation across Israel’s land.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).