Verse 3

And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the a 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.

(a) He speaks of all the places where the Israelites accustomed to commit their idolaters, threatening them with destruction.

Verse 4

And your altars shall be desolate, and your b images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain [men] before your idols.

(b) Read (2 Kings 23:14).

Verse 5

And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their c idols; and I will scatter your bones about your altars.

(c) In contempt of their power and force, which will neither be able to deliver you or themselves.

Verse 8

Yet will I leave a remnant, d that ye may have [some] that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.

(d) He shows that in all dangers God will preserve a few, which will be as the seed of his Church and call on his Name.

Verse 9

And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations to which they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their adulterous heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which play the harlot with their idols: and they e shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

(e) They will be ashamed to see that their hope in idols was in vain, and so will repent.

Verse 11

Thus saith the Lord GOD; f Smite with thy 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.

(f) By these signs he would that the prophet would signify the great destruction to come.

Verse 13

Then shall g ye know that I [am] the LORD, when their slain [men] shall be among their idols all around their altars, upon every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they offered sweet savour to all their idols.

(g) That is, all nations when you will see my judgments.

Verse 14

So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate, even, more desolate h than the wilderness toward Diblath, in all their habitations: and they shall know that I [am] the LORD.

(h) Which was in Syria and bordered on Israel, or from the wilderness which was south, to Diblath which was north: meaning the while country.