King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 4 notes
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.
The mountains of Israel 🇮🇱 were addressed as if animate, or were they?
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.
The language of whoredom is used here for idolatry.
Because that is how God sees and feels about it.
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.
Could it be that in the time of their destruction they will run to their idols and shrines for salvation, but there will be none?
Their idols will be powerless to save in that day, and so they will be killed and slain before these dumb idols whom the Lord had long warned them about.
They were round about their altars at the time of their death because they likely sought after those idols to deliver them in the time of their war. They clung to their idols unto death.
And their idols could not deliver them. They died literally in their iniquity, bowing one more time before their altars. Even in death they sin.
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.