Ezekiel 6:13

6:13 Then you will know that I am the Lord – when their dead lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill and all the mountaintops, under every green tree and every leafy oak, ¹  the places where they have offered fragrant incense to all their idols.

Psalms 78:58

78:58 They made him angry with their pagan shrines, ² 

and made him jealous with their idols.

Isaiah 57:5-7

57:5 you who practice ritual sex ³  under the oaks and every green tree,

who slaughter children near the streams under the rocky overhangs. ⁴ 

57:6 Among the smooth stones of the stream are the idols you love;

they, they are the object of your devotion. ⁵ 

You pour out liquid offerings to them,

you make an offering.

Because of these things I will seek vengeance. ⁶ 

57:7 On every high, elevated hill you prepare your bed;

you go up there to offer sacrifices.

Jeremiah 2:7

2:7 I brought you ⁷  into a fertile land

so you could enjoy ⁸  its fruits and its rich bounty.

But when you entered my land, you defiled it; ⁹ 

you made the land I call my own ¹⁰  loathsome to me.

Jeremiah 3:6

3:6 When Josiah was king of Judah, the Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, you have no doubt seen what wayward Israel has done. ¹¹  You have seen how she went up to every high hill and under every green tree to give herself like a prostitute to other gods. ¹² 

[6:13]  ¹ sn By referring to every high hill…all the mountaintops…under every green tree and every leafy oak Ezekiel may be expanding on the phraseology of Deut 12:2 (see 1 Kgs 14:23; 2 Kgs 16:4; 17:10; Jer 2:20; 3:6, 13; 2 Chr 28:4).

[78:58]  ² tn Traditionally, “high places.”

[57:5]  ³ tn Heb “inflame yourselves”; NRSV “burn with lust.” This verse alludes to the practice of ritual sex that accompanied pagan fertility rites.

[57:5]  ⁴ sn This apparently alludes to the practice of child sacrifice (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).

[57:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “among the smooth stones of the stream [is] your portion, they, they [are] your lot.” The next line indicates idols are in view.

[57:6]  ⁶ tn The text reads literally, “Because of these am I relenting?” If the prefixed interrogative particle is retained at the beginning of the sentence, then the question would be rhetorical, with the Niphal of נָחָם (nakham) probably being used in the sense of “relent, change one’s mind.” One could translate: “Because of these things, how can I relent?” However, the initial letter he may be dittographic (note the final he [ה] on the preceding word). In this case one may understand the verb in the sense of “console oneself, seek vengeance,” as in 1:24.

[2:7]  ⁷ sn Note how contemporary Israel is again identified with her early ancestors. See the study note on 2:2.

[2:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “eat.”

[2:7]  ⁹ sn I.e., made it ceremonially unclean. See Lev 18:19-30; Num 35:34; Deut 21:23.

[2:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my inheritance.” Or “the land [i.e., inheritance] I gave you,” reading the pronoun as indicating source rather than possession. The parallelism and the common use in Jeremiah of the term to refer to the land or people as the Lord’s (e.g., 12:7, 8, 9; 16:18; 50:11) make the possessive use more likely here.

[3:6]  ¹¹ tn “Have you seen…” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[3:6]  ¹² tn Heb “she played the prostitute there.” This is a metaphor for Israel’s worship; she gave herself to the worship of other gods like a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. There seems no clear way to completely spell out the metaphor in the translation.