Immerse: Prophets - Flipbook - Page 336
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IMMERSE
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PROPHETS
5:17–7:2
gone. And along with the famine, wild animals will attack you and rob you
of your children. Disease and war will stalk your land, and I will bring the
sword of the enemy against you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”
Again a message came to me from the Lord: “Son of man, turn and face
the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them. Proclaim this message
from the Sovereign Lord against the mountains of Israel. This is what the
Sovereign Lord says to the mountains and hills and to the ravines and
valleys: I am about to bring war upon you, and I will smash your pagan
shrines. All your altars will be demolished, and your places of worship will
be destroyed. I will kill your people in front of your idols. I will lay your
corpses in front of your idols and scatter your bones around your altars.
Wherever you live there will be desolation, and I will destroy your pagan
shrines. Your altars will be demolished, your idols will be smashed, your
places of worship will be torn down, and all the religious objects you have
made will be destroyed. The place will be littered with corpses, and you
will know that I alone am the Lord.
“But I will let a few of my people escape destruction, and they will be
scattered among the nations of the world. Then when they are exiled
among the nations, they will remember me. They will recognize how hurt
I am by their unfaithful hearts and lustful eyes that long for their idols.
Then at last they will hate themselves for all their detestable sins. They will
know that I alone am the Lord and that I was serious when I said I would
bring this calamity on them.
“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Clap your hands in horror, and
stamp your feet. Cry out because of all the detestable sins the people of
Israel have committed. Now they are going to die from war and famine and
disease. Disease will strike down those who are far away in exile. War will
destroy those who are nearby. And anyone who survives will be killed by
famine. So at last I will spend my fury on them. They will know that I am
the Lord when their dead lie scattered among their idols and altars on
every hill and mountain and under every green tree and every great shade
tree—the places where they offered sacrifices to their idols. I will crush
them and make their cities desolate from the wilderness in the south to
Riblah in the north. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
Then this message came to me from the Lord: “Son of man, this is what
the Sovereign Lord says to Israel:
