1A message from the Lord came to me that said,

2“Son of man, face towards Israel's mountains and prophesy against them.

3Tell them: Mountains of Israel, listen to the message from the Lord God! This is what the Lord God says to the mountains and the hills, to the gorges and the valleys: I'm going to attack you and destroy your high places.

4Your pagan altars will be torn down, and your incense altars will be smashed to pieces. I will kill your idol worshipers right in front of their idols.

5I will put the dead bodies of you Israelites in front of your idols and scatter your bones around your altars.

6Everywhere you live, the towns will be turned into rubble and the high places torn down. Your altars will be demolished and defiled. Your idols will be smashed and completely destroyed. Your incense altars will be knocked down, and all that you made will be ruined.

7People will be killed all throughout your country. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

8However, I will let some of you survive and scatter you among the different nations and countries.

9Once they are there as prisoners in the nations, then the survivors will remember me. They will realize how sad they made me by their spiritual adultery as they deserted me with their eyes full of lust as they worshiped idols. They will hate themselves for the evil things they did, for all their disgusting sins.

10Then they will know that I am the Lord, and that I was not pretending when I warned them about bringing this disaster upon them.

11This is what the Lord God says: Hit yourself with your hands, stomp your feet, and shout out ‘Oh no!’ Do this because of all the terrible wickedness of the people of Israel. They are going to die by the sword and famine and disease.

12Those living far away will die from disease, those who are close by will be killed by the sword, and those who are left will die of starvation. This is how I will express my anger towards them.

13Then you will know that I am the Lord—when the idol worshipers lie dead among their idols and altars on the top of every hill and mountain, and under every green tree and large oak. These were the pagan shrines where they offered sweet-smelling incense to all their idols.

14I'm going to lift up my hand to punish them. In every place they live I will make their country a wasteland, all the way from the desert in the south to Diblah in the north. ¹⁸Then they will know that I am the Lord.”