What is the context?
Ezekiel must turn toward Israel’s mountains and address the mountains, hills, ravines and valleys. The warning reaches across the land because the places of false worship are spread through it.
The Hebrew word בָּמָה, bamah (bah-MAH), means high place. Brown–Driver–Briggs explains its use for worship sites on hills and also on built platforms. Here the surrounding references to idols, altars and incense make the false worship at these sites the focus.
The Lord will bring the sword, demolish the altars and smash the idols. The bodies of worshipers will lie before the objects they trusted, and their bones will be scattered around the altars.
The destruction of cities and shrines ends with the declaration that the people will know He is the Lord. The idols cannot secure their own survival or the safety of their worshipers.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Henry and Wesley emphasize the failure of false worship as a source of safety. Wesley connects the bodies before the altars with the exposure of the idols’ inability to help.
Henry points out that God can bring down idolatrous worship even through people who practice idolatry themselves. The passage’s outcome concerns His judgment and the failure of the false gods, rather than the religious faithfulness of the conquering power.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
First Corinthians 10:14–22 carries the call to undivided worship into the life of believers in Christ. Paul urges them to flee idolatry and explains that sharing the Lord’s cup and table cannot be joined with participation in idol worship.
Paul does not quote Ezekiel 6 there. The shared theme is allegiance to the living God, now explained through participation in Christ and the unity of His body. The Lord’s people are called to honor that relationship in their worship and conduct.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.