{"id":73246,"date":"2020-04-13T10:08:25","date_gmt":"2020-04-13T07:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=73246"},"modified":"2020-04-13T10:08:25","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T07:08:25","slug":"ezekiel-prophesies-to-the-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/ezekiel-prophesies-to-the-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Ezekiel Prophesies To The Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At the beginning of our Chapter, God tells Ezekiel: \u201cO Mortal Man (Ben-Adam), turn your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy to them and say: O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus said the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, to the streams and the valleys: See, I will bring a sword against you\u2026\u201d (Ezekiel 6:2-3). Similarly, at the beginning of Ezekiel, Chapter 36 God says: \u201cAnd you, O mortal, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say: O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord\u201d. Likewise, the later Prophet Micah is told: \u201cHear what the Lord is saying: Come, present [My] case before the mountains, and let the hills hear you pleading. Hear, you mountains, the case of the Lord \u2014 You firm foundations of the earth! For the Lord has a case against His people. He has a suit against Israel\u201d (Micah 6:1-2). Here, we have the basic elements of a metaphorical lawsuit: God is the plaintiff, the prophet is the attorney, the mountains are called as witnesses, and the defendant is the people of Israel. However, in Ezekiel, God and His prophet speak directly to \u201cthe mountains of Israel\u201d, apparently representing the whole of the Land of Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Jerusalemite scholar known as the Hida\u2019 (Rabbi Hayyim David Azulai), in his Homat Ana\u201dkh Tanakh commentary (Pisa 1801) provides a brief interpretation of God\u2019s command to Ezekiel: \u201cturn your face toward the mountains\u2026 and say: O mountains of Israel, hear! It is possible that every mountain has a Sar (a celestial \u201cprince\u201d or \u201cpatron-angel\u201d, see Daniel 10:13, 20,21; 12:1) above and it is against these Sarim that He [i.e. God through the Prophet Ezekiel] speaks. And similarly, the hills and such like have Sarim.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, why should Ezekiel and God speak to inanimate objects like mountains as if they are alive? Why should God \u201cbring a sword\u201d against the mountains? The answer comes without delay \u2013 because of the \u201chigh places — bamot\u201d, sites of idolatrous worship on the mountains. Indeed, it is later emphasized that Ezekiel is condemning Israel\u2019s continuing to sacrifice on the \u201chigh places \u2013 bamot\u201d (see I Kings 14:22-24). God again says to Ezekiel: \u201c\u2026By this too your fathers affronted Me and committed trespass against Me: When I brought them to the land that I had sworn to give them, and they saw any high hill or any leafy tree, they slaughtered their sacrifices there and presented their offensive offerings there; there they produced their pleasing odors and poured out their libations. Then I said to them, What (mah) is the high place (bamah) to which you come (ba)?! Therefore, to this day its name shall be called \u201cba-mah \u2013 come-what\u201d (Ezekiel 20:27-29).<\/span><\/p>\n

After the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, worship at the <\/span>bamot <\/span><\/i>was forbidden and never again permitted, becoming part of our historical \u201cheritage — nahalah\u201d (see Deuteronomy 12:1-14).<\/span><\/p>\n

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