6 The Lord gave this message to me: ² ‘Son of man, look towards the mountains of Israel. Tell them my message to warn them.^{[a] 3} Say, “You mountains of Israel, listen to this message from the Almighty Lord. This is what the Almighty Lord says to the mountains, the hills and the valleys: I am coming here to attack you. I will destroy the places where you worship false gods. ⁴ I will destroy your altars for sacrifices and your altars for incense. I will kill the people who worship there and put them in front of their idols.^{[b] 5} The dead bodies of you people of Israel will lie in front of your idols. I will cause soldiers to throw your bones on the ground around the altars.

⁶ In all the places that you live, soldiers will destroy your towns. They will also destroy the places where you worship false gods. They will break down the altars so that they become heaps of stones. They will break your idols into pieces. They will destroy the altars where you burn incense. They will remove all those things that you have made. ⁷ Dead bodies will lie on the ground everywhere that you live. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

⁸ But I will allow some of you to live. Those people will escape when the enemy army attacks. They will run away to live in foreign countries. ⁹ When they are living as prisoners among those other nations, they will remember me. They will realize that they made me very sad because they were not faithful to me. They stopped worshipping me. Instead, they chose to worship idols. Then they will be ashamed of themselves, because of all the disgusting things which they have done. ¹⁰ They will know that I am the Lord. They will know that it was true when I promised to bring this terrible trouble to them.” ’

¹¹ This is what I, the Almighty Lord, say to you, Ezekiel: ‘Clap your hands together. Stamp on the ground with your feet. Show that you are very upset because of all the disgusting, evil things that Israel's people have done. War, famine and disease will kill them. ¹² Illness will kill the people who live far away. Enemy soldiers will kill those who live near to the city. Famine will kill those people who are still alive. Because I am very angry with them, I will punish them very much.

¹³ Then they will know that I am the Lord. They will see the dead bodies of their own people. The bodies will be lying among the idols that they worshipped. They will be lying around the altars of their false gods, on every high hill and mountain. The dead bodies will lie under the big trees where they offered incense to all their idols. ¹⁴ I will punish them very much. I will destroy their land from the desert in the south as far as Diblah. I will make it a place where nobody can live. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’