Ezekiel 19:9

19:9 They put him in a collar with hooks; ¹ 

they brought him to the king of Babylon;

they brought him to prison ² 

so that his voice would not be heard

any longer on the mountains of Israel.

Ezekiel 33:28

33:28 I will turn the land into a desolate ruin; her confident pride will come to an end. The mountains of Israel will be so desolate no one will pass through them.

Ezekiel 34:14

34:14 In a good pasture I will feed them; the mountain heights of Israel will be their pasture. There they will lie down in a lush ³  pasture, and they will feed on rich grass on the mountains of Israel.

Ezekiel 35:12

35:12 Then you will know that I, the Lord, have heard all the insults you spoke against the mountains of Israel, saying, “They are desolate, they have been given to us for food.”

Ezekiel 37:22

37:22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over them all. They will never again be two nations and never again be divided into two kingdoms. ⁴ 

Joshua 11:21

11:21 At that time Joshua attacked and eliminated the Anakites from the hill country ⁵  – from Hebron, Debir, Anab, and all the hill country of Judah and Israel. ⁶  Joshua annihilated them and their cities.

Micah 6:1-2

The Lord Demands Justice, not Ritual

6:1 Listen to what the Lord says:

“Get up! Defend yourself ⁷  before the mountains! ⁸ 

Present your case before the hills!” ⁹ 

6:2 Hear the Lord’s accusation, you mountains,

you enduring foundations of the earth!

For the Lord has a case against his people;

he has a dispute with Israel! ¹⁰ 

¹ tn Or “They put him in a neck stock with hooks.” The noun סּוּגַר (sugar), translated “collar,” occurs only here in the Bible. L. C. Allen and D. I. Block point out a Babylonian cognate that refers to a device for transporting prisoners of war that held them by their necks (D. I. Block, Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:597, n. 35; L. C. Allen, Ezekiel [WBC], 1:284). Based on the Hebrew root, the traditional rendering had been “cage” (cf. ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

² tc The term in the MT occurs only here and in Eccl 9:12 where it refers to a net for catching fish. The LXX translates this as “prison,” which assumes a confusion of dalet and resh took place in the MT.

³ tn Heb “good.”

⁴ sn Jeremiah also attested to the reuniting of the northern and southern kingdoms (Jer 3:12, 14; 31:2-6).

⁵ tn Heb “went and cut off the Anakites from the hill country.”

⁶ tn Heb “and from all the hill country of Israel.”

⁷ tn Or “plead your case” (NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “present your plea”; NLT “state your case.”

⁸ sn As in some ancient Near Eastern treaties, the mountains are personified as legal witnesses that will settle the dispute between God and Israel.

⁹ tn Heb “let the hills hear your voice.”

¹⁰ tn This verse briefly interrupts the Lord’s statement (see vv. 1, 3) as the prophet summons the mountains as witnesses. Because of this v. 2 has been placed in parentheses in the translation.