Ezekiel 6:1-14
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,
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, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.
4 And your altars shall be desolate, and your imagesa shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.
5 And I will layb the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.
6 In 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.
7 And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
8 Yet 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.
9 And 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.
10 And they shall know that I am the LORD, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them.
11 Thus 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.
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: thus will I accomplish my fury upon them.
13 Then 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.
14 So 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.
Ezekiel 6:3. I will destroy your high places, all the necessaries of idolatry. במות bomoth, Βουνοι, thence Βωμοι. Your high altars. In Montfaucon's Antiquities we have various views of heathen altars, all the devices of men. The druids preferred a tabular rock unhewn, supported by three pillars, usually called cromlechs. They had no idols; but the apostate jews had their idols in some adjacent temple or covering.
Ezekiel 6:5. I will scatter your bones round about your altars. It was an ancient custom to bury treasures and trinkets with the dead. This tempted invading armies to desecrate every splendid tomb, as stated in Jeremiah 8:1.
Ezekiel 6:11. Stamp with thy foot. A preacher may use proper action at all times, but extravagant action on strong occasions only. Divine truths, conformably to their nature, should call forth the energies both of the body and the mind.
Ezekiel 6:14. And make the land more desolate than the wilderness towards Diblath, the town adjacent to the terrible desert.
REFLECTIONS.
What a striking apostrophe to mountains and hills smoking profanely with victims, to vallies and rivers where Moloch was more obscurely worshipped, and infants immolated. The high places of altars and the idols are named last as the most detestible; for God hated their crimes, and allowed not of more than one altar, excepting in some cases of extremity. Very soon shall the Assyrian hunters pursue the scattered families of the ten tribes, and those of Judah who succeeded them, and inherited all their crimes.
The holy prophets often describe the evangelical state of the church by the culture of desert lands, and turning them to inviting abodes, surrounded by the most flourishing agriculture; yea, by springs in the desert, and pools in the parched ground. Just the reverse of that is the character of apostasy in religion. The fine gold becomes dim, and the fruitful field a place of briers and thorns. If men will learn wisdom, the volume is open; and the abyss is before the eyes of the incorrigible. Execration often attends the wicked, after their abuse of prosperity in the present world, and even after death. Why should the bones of the epicure and the polluted atheist be respected on earth? They are memorials of their wickedness. And if God sent his hunters on the mountains of Samaria, making desolate the mausoleums, what became of the tenants that were hurried away in the awful habits of apostasy, revolt and crime. How will they meet the fiery Judge, or abide the opening of his books.