Ezekiel 6King James Version
A prophecy against the mountains of Israel, where the high places stand. The idols shall be broken. The slain shall fall in the midst of them. Then ye shall know that I am the Lord, a refrain that rings through Ezekiel like a drumbeat.
God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the mountains of Israel: the high places where altars to other gods are built will be demolished, the worshipers killed, and bones scattered. Some will survive and be scattered among the nations, where they will remember God and loathe themselves for their idolatry. The chapter ends with God declaring that after the destruction, they will know that he is the LORD.
The judgment on Israel's idolatry is inseparable from mercy: survivors are preserved specifically so they can remember, repent, and know who God is.
9: "They that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me." God does not describe himself as angry here but as broken, which changes the register entirely.
About 593 BC, Ezekiel speaks toward the landscape of Canaan from Babylonia. The mountains of Israel were dotted with bamot, high places, where local shrines blended Yahweh worship with Canaanite practices. Ezekiel is dismantling any remaining fantasy that the land itself is safe or that casual syncretism will be tolerated.
The LORD who speaks through Ezekiel; the mountains and high places as symbolic targets; the slain and the scattered remnant who survive to remember.
The phrase 'ye shall know that I am the LORD' appears here for the first of many times in Ezekiel. It becomes the signature refrain of the book: judgment and restoration alike are oriented toward this recognition. God is not punishing for punishment's sake but to break through the idolatry that has severed the relationship.
For when you have watched something precious destroyed by choices you cannot undo. The chapter does not look away from that devastation, but it notes that memory survives even catastrophe, and memory is where repentance begins.
1And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,
3And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.
4And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.
5And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.
6In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.
7And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
8Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.
9And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.
10And they shall know that I am the LORD, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them.
11Thus saith the Lord GOD; Smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.
12He 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: thus will I accomplish my fury upon them.
13Then shall ye know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols.
14So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath, in all their habitations: and they shall know that I am the LORD.